The more things change
by dragonpawclaws
Summary: 2009 movie fanfic. Astro's friends are growing up without him. What's an android to do? I'm not going into any character back story, so don't read it unless your obsessed with the movie. A sweet story, no smutty stuff. Sorry. Rated T just in case.
1. Chapter 1

_I going to tell you right now that I don't know why I started this story. I've never written fan fiction before and I still don't understand why I'm doing so now. I suppose it's for the same reasons that we all write. The story doesn't leave you alone. It's always there when your working, eating, driving. It won't even leave you alone when your trying to sleep. How rude. It beats against the inside of your head and won't stop till you let it out. So I'm hoping that once I finish the story it will finally go away._

_Yeah and the legal stuff. I don't own any of these characters. They are the property of Imagi studios and Tezuka productions. But the movie was made a long time ago so they may or may not still own the rights. Whoever it is, it sure the hell isn't me._

* * *

Astro looked at Cora as he peeped over the top of the lab table. He had snuck in quietly as she admired the large floral bouquet that had been delivered that morning. There was no card. There didn't need to be. Unaware of his presence, Cora leaned against the table, relaxation in her shoulders, as Astro studied the expanse of her back. As Cora leaned forward to adjust a sprig of baby's breath, Astro spoke.

"Someone must like you a lot, to send you so many flowers."

The baby's breath flew out of the vase as Cora started. A smile played across her face as she delicately put it back in place. She didn't turn around. "Yes, I consider myself lucky to know him. Not only does he remember my birthday every year, but also my favorite flowers" Cora gestured to the entire arrangement. A three-foot high monster towered above her from it's place on the lab counter, contrasting sharply against the aluminum wall behind it. With large-headed blooms of carnation so numerous, that for a moment Astro could imagine a giant pink-eyed alien had just crashed though the lab room wall. Or better yet, was crouched on the counter, poised and ready to strike.

Astro now had his chin on his palms, elbows on table. Admiring her admiring them. Eight years had passed sense they first met. She was now twenty five. She was twenty five and he still had the appearance of a thirteen year old boy. Inwardly he sighed.

When Cora said nothing more, he asked, "So, do you like them?"

Cora pinched her chin thoughtfully. She swayed right to left, a critical expression on her face and in her eyes.

"Actually," then she paused. Her tone was serious.

"Yes?" Astro had clambered onto the table. He was peering over her shoulder now, trying to detect the flaw she had seen.

"GOT YAH!" Cora exclaimed, as she turned and grabbed his arms. She released him as she put her hands on her hips and gave him a sideways look.

"Honestly Astro, you are so predictable." Her tone was mocking but her smile was warm.

Astro smiled up at her as he sat down on the table edge and dangled his boots. Suddenly she leaned down and pulled him into an embrace. The room seemed to spin for a moment, as it always did. He could feel her warmth though her lab coat, and he relaxed into it. She brought her mouth close to his ear and whispered. "I love them." There seemed a lot of meaning said behind those words. Maybe she would have liked to say something else, maybe something more, but she didn't. Then she pulled away, and Astro decided he was hopefully imagining things that weren't there. Again.

Imaginations should not be so painfully overactive, he thought ruefully.

Zane chose that moment to come barreling into the lab. Tall and lanky, Zane had grown into a successful adult. He ran a thriving repair shop next to the Ministry. Zane and a talented team of grease-covered teenagers fixed everything from robots to toasters. Never having the educational degrees to work at the Ministry never stopped him from always BEING at the Ministry. In the early years he was always sneaking in, only to be politely escorted out. His friendship with Astro not withstanding. As this continued though the years Zane's know-how became known though his interactions with the various scientists of the Ministry. The cyberneticists were soon dragging him into their offices for a fresh look on old problems. He was offered a job as a consultant, but he turned it down as he was then gifted the repair shop by his proud yet elderly foster father. That didn't stop the Ministry from issuing him his own ID badge and key card.

Zane's sneakers squeaked on the floor as he came to a stop. Then he resumed his layed-back demeanor. He said nothing for a moment as he looked from the bouquet to Cora and Astro. "Geez Astro, they get bigger every year.", Zane said in his usual lazy drawl. His overlong hair fell into his eyes as he smiled at them both. He held his hand up to one of the blooms to compare the two. "I walked though the consumer question department and they were buzzing about watching the florist bring it in. You should have seen Mark's face."

Astro was confused. "Mark?"

Zane gave Cora a conspiratorial grin.

"Mark Lorrin works in the call department." Cora said. Deadpan.

Zane grin got wider. "He's got a thing for Cora."

"A thing?", Astro said. It came out more a squeak than he would have liked. Nether seemed to notice.

"Blah." Cora said. "NOT interested."

Astro released a breath. She really did look disgusted.

Zane picked up her Vclipboard off the counter and started scrolling though some of Cora's calculations. "Just sayn'", he said. "When was the last time you went on a date?" He mumbled into the Vboard. He knew Cora well enough to know that such a comment would bring ferocity to her eyes. Which was the fun in saying them.

Cora crossed her arms and pursed her lips as she looked at Zane. "I don't have time for such nonsense. If I want to continue working here, which I certainly do, then I need to produce some results."

"This numbers wrong." Zane said, pointing at a figure on the Vboard. Cora snatched it away. Zane spread his now empty hands. "You always make time for me and Astro. Even Sludge and Widget when they aren't in school." He tapped his chin. "Even during your college classes you always made time for us."

Cora was making corrections on the Vboard. Or pretending to. She drew a breath.

"That's because your my friends. My very best friends." Her voice started angry but ended with a embarrassed smile as she looked at them both. She wasn't used to saying anything so heartfelt. "After all these years we have managed to stick together. I want it to stay that way." Her voice was hushed.

Zane took the board away from her and recorrected her corrections. The room was quiet for a moment after Cora's admission. Astro felt he should say something but he settled for touching Cora's arm and offering an encouraging smile. They all felt the same way, Cora was just the first to say it out loud.

Zane finally looked up and said, "Well, someday were all going to find somebody. We're going to get married and have little bitty babies. Just like everyone else. We'll have our own lives to worry about." It was a very depressing thought. Not the kind of thing Zane would normally say. Cora gave him a puzzled look, but said nothing.

Astro didn't like the way this conversation was going. He blamed Zane for bringing it up, even though he knew he was right. His friends were growing up without him. How long till they were too old to want hang out with him? Who wants to hang out with a little kid? He had lots of other friends, many of them his own 'age', but these were his BEST friends. They listened to him. Cared about his feelings. They didn't take advantage of him. He didn't need to put on a show for them or need to do anything to impress them. They talked to him like a person. Not a robot. They helped him feel NORMAL. He couldn't bare the thought of them eventually drifting apart. This truth had been bothering him for years.

That's when Astro dropped off the lab table. Cora and Zane jumped in unison as Astro hit the floor with a loud metallic clunk. He spoke over his shoulder as he walked toward the door. "Well I can see you have work to do so I'll just be on my way.", Astro said as he started to exit. "Happy Birthday,-

The door slammed in his face as Cora loomed over him. Her longer stride beat him to the door.  
- Cora.", he finished weakly.

"You agreed to help me today."

"But I got this project with my Dad..."

"Oh, yes. The project you won't tell me about."

"It's, it's-um." Boy she was terrifying.

"Classified? ", Zane suggested.

"UP!UP!UP!" Cora said to Zane. She used her free hand to send him a shushing motion, the other hand continued to bar the door. "Let him do it Zane."

Astro opened and closed his mouth a few times, but nothing came out. In his mind he crashes though the wall and gets away.

"It's really nothing.", was his lame response.

"You've always shared with me before Astro, ESPECIALLY the classified projects. I don't know why you won't let me help."

Astro's voice shook a little. "It's not so much an official project really, it's more of hobby. A pass-time."

"You know why I waded though five years of robotics Astro? So I could spend more time with you."

Oh no. Now she was playing guilt-trip hardball.

"I know. I know Cora." He hadn't known. He had always assumed she had an interest in the subject, not him specifically. He didn't have a heart, but it seemed to flutter nonetheless. "It's just that it's become a kind of father-son...thing."

"Oh." Cora said. Her posture changed. Her shoulders slumped. She released the door. Best of all, her eyes were no longer the slits of interrogation. They now contained a mixture of understanding and disappointment. Astro felt a little guilty for putting it there.

"Sorry Cora."

Astro began to open the door a second time, but Cora slammed it shut again as she leaned in close to him.

"A little hint."

Astro said nothing.

"It's-my-birth-dayy." She said it in a quiet sing-song.

As Astro's face scrunched up Cora started to smile, but then remembered she was supposed to be looking forlorn and a smile would ruin the puppy-dog-eye effect.

Astro closed his eyes to block out the sight and ran a hand over his face.

_That's so human, what a human thing to do,_ she thought with amazement. She'd seen him do things like this hundreds of times before. But every time it took her breath away. No wonder she kept forgetting he was a robot. Astro opened his eyes, and his expression was resigned.

_Yes!_

Astro looked her right in the eyes so long she felt she would fall into those big brown photo receptors. Or die of anticipation.

"It's an upgrade."

Confusion etched Cora's face.

Zane was leaning forward.

Cora cocked her head. "An upgrade for what?"

Astro paused again. "For...me."

Cora's brow furrowed more. "Like, ah, a software compatibility upgrade?" She knew Astro had had these before.

"Um. No."

"Hardware upgrade?" Because Astro tended to get beat up battling whatever happened to be attacking the city (or surrounding area) that week, weapon upgrades or repairs were common occurrences as well.

"Sort of." Astro was slowly inching the door open. "It's still very experimental. We haven't even started any serious testing yet. I'm not even sure it's worth all the time we're spending on it."

Cora deflated. "So your telling me your not working on anything cool."

"I said it was nothing."

"Well, I know I don't have your father's skills, but I would like to help if I could. I know your schematics top to bottom. So let me know if you need me."

Astro found it both disconcerting and flattering that Cora knew him inside and out. Of course his father couldn't be expected to keep his brilliance all to himself. But the knowledge was limited to only a select few for security reasons. It made Astro feel a little violated. But he supposed it wasn't really any different than having an anatomy poster on a classroom wall.

"Even if we finish it, I'm not sure I'll go though with it."

Cora's eyes widened. "So it's dangerous?" She could always read between the lines.

Astro just looked at her.

"It is!" She exclaimed.

"Gotta go." With that, he slipped quickly out the door. He didn't just run, he jumped up into the air and blasted down the hallway.

"Fine! I don't care what it is anyway!", Cora yelled after him. She turned to slam the door but quickly turned back. "I do care! Don't kill yourself!" She yelled it extra loud but he was already gone.

Dr. Shelber and Dr. Ambrose were peeking around their office doors and looking at Cora. Shelber's look was one of inquiry, Ambrose just looked angry. "Sorry doctors.", Cora said with an apologetic smile. And she quietly closed the door.

"Is that why you opted for one of the older offices? So you could slam the doors?", Zane snickered.

"Oh shush." Cora brushed him off. "Astro wouldn't do anything too dangerous? Would he?"

"What are you talking about? Astro does dangerous stuff all the time." He scoffed at her.

"Can't you ever say anything to make me feel better? Couldn't you just lie to me once in a wile?"

Zane's grin was full of mirth and amusement.

"I wouldn't ever lie to you Cora." The statement was sincere.

The sentiment calmed her for a moment before she fired right up again. "And why did you have to bring up Mark in front of Astro? That was mean."

"Why would that bother Astro? It's not like there's ever been anything going on between the two of you." Zane gestured to the giant floral arrangement. "I've always known why you don't date."

"And I don't HAVE to if I don't WANT to. Geez. You, my parents. It's my choice. And I've dated before, they were all ridiculous."

"Well, yeah, look who you compare them to."

"I do not compare-"

"Yes you do."

Cora was trying to think of a retort, when Zane offered a placating hand gesture. "I know Cora. It's complicated. Between you and Astro it has always been complicated."

At that moment a chime sounded behind the door. It killed the conversation. Cora was still leaning against it so she opened it up. A shiny 0-700 bot stood in the doorway. They were distinguished by their large double-wheel base and glowing eyes.

"Message." The robot said in a tinny voice.

"Recipient?" Cora asked.

"Mr. Arricson."

"Zane, it's for you." Cora said it louder than necessary.

"I know. I'm right here." Cora smirked. Unapologetic. Zane addressed the robot. "Yes?"

"Your presence is requested in blue room on the second floor."

"I'll be right there." He turned to Cora. "That will be Dr. Watterson and that crazy leg design of his. It probably kicked him again." Zane finally handed back her Vboard. "Here."

He started to leave but stopped.

"Oh Cora? Dont be too hard on Astro. I'm sure he'll do what's best for him. He may stay young, but his mind does not."

Zane would do that alot, convince everyone in the room he was a goofball and then say something wise and profound, blowing everyone away. It just made Cora suspicious. He was being more bazaar than usual today. She leaned back to look directly in his eyes as she clasped the Vboard to her chest. "Are you up to something?"

Zane made a half-bow that accompanied his usual sly smile. "I'm always up to something Cora."

"Do tell." She knew he wouldn't. Zane strode out into the hallway, his hands in his pockets. The 0-700 rolling along beside him. "You'll understand when your older." He called back to her.

"I'm older than you Zane!" She called back.

"Happy Birthday Cora!" He said as he strode around the corner, almost out of earshot.

"Men." She mumbled to herself as she reentered the lab. Let them shut her out. Humph. Then she looked at the Vboard and scrolled though the program she'd been working on. Zane had completed it. He'd only been at it for ten minutes and he had completed it. Cora shook her head as she examined it. It was beautiful. It was perfect.

He's not good with his letters but he sure was a wiz with numbers. Her work was done for the day now. She could go home if she really wanted to.

She looked from the board to the flowers. She smiled. Even with as much frustration as they gave her sometimes, they were the best.

Cora placed the board on the counter, and strode up to the flowers. She carefully separated the blossoms down the middle. There, in the back of the arrangement, cut so short that it's base almost touched the lip of the vase, was a single red rose.

* * *

_Aww. Isn't that sweet. I was tempted to leave it at at that and make it a one-shot story. But I thought it would be pretty insulting to the reader to leave so many threads untied. I go a little into the politics of Metro City in the next chapter, whenever I finally get it up. Will that ruin the story? Let's find out!_


	2. Chapter 2

_Has anyone read the movie novelization? I have. It was awful. If it was based on the screenplay, which I'm guessing it is, I'm glad that the movie turned out as good as it did. One of the few cases where the movie turns out better than the book. Some of the information in the book was interesting though. I liked the fact that it gave some insight on how old all the kids were. _

* * *

Astro couldn't find his father in his lab or his office. When Dr. Tenma wasn't in his lab he was working with Dr. Elefun in his. Astro found Dr. Elefun leaning over a pile of circuit tile and wires. Brilliant light reflected off of his tinted faceplate as he welded two wide metal rods together. Astro walked right up to the table. The brilliance of the welding torch didn't harm his eyes at all. Elefun caught his movement and lifted his welding helmet.

"Ah, Astro! Your timing is impeccable. Could you hold this like so? I'm having trouble managing on my own."

"Of course Dr. Elefun." He'd ask him about his father after he was done. He didn't want to be rude.

He held the bars in place, watching Elefun work. For a wile the only sound was the snick-snick and pop-pop of the welding process. Hot plasma leapt into the air and rained down on his hands as Dr. Elefun danced the arc across the metal. It was beautiful to watch. Astro enjoyed working with Dr. Elefun. He often did when he wasn't working with his father or Cora. Dr. Elefun thought his blue core research was over once it had been given to Astro, but once he learned the energy could be shared, solving the world's problems once again became his passion. He had teams of various scientists all over the Ministry working on these projects, of them Cora was one. From the look of the mess on the table, he was assembling a water filtration device prototype. Astro could share enough energy to power it for years with no cost to himself.

"There now." Elefun said when he'd cut the torch. "That was much easier. I should have called for you sooner Astro." He smiled kindly.

As Astro started to ask about his father, Dr. Bill Tenma walked into the lab with a purposeful stride. His face was grim. As Dr. Elefun saw him his face became etched with concern.

"Goodness Tenma, whatever's wrong?"

Tenma first looked at Astro as he stopped before them. As if deciding what he had to say could be said in front of him.

"There's been another one." Anger underlaid his voice. He said it to Elefun.

Dr. Elefun was shocked.

"Another one?" That's the third one this month! Has the press got wind of it yet?"

"They were already at the scene." Tenma said though clenched teeth.

"Blast!"

Astro knew what his father was talking about. It was another rogue robot. It started about ten weeks ago. But it was just a dog-bot to began with, knocking over mailboxes. It was stopped once it ran under a moving bus. No one thought anything about it, a simple malfunction, though none was found. Then things started getting serious. A waiter bot started flipping over tables and tearing up the kitchen in front of several dozen witnesses. There was no one who could get close enough to it to turn it off. The place was evacuated and city guard was called in to destroy it. It was happening to robots of all makes and models, and it was increasing in frequency. The news networks were having a field day, warning of the dangers that robots are capable of, and that they could strike at any time. Working on the peoples fear, which Astro didn't think was a professional way to inform the populace at all. And it was unfair, as no humans had been injured. Yet.

It was all that was talked about in the Ministry these days. Tenma himself had made three public speeches assuring that the Ministry was doing what they could, which wasn't much. There wasn't much left of the robots once the trigger-happy police force finished with them. A virus was the suspect of course, but they couldn't find one. Dr. Tenma didn't like talking about it in front of Astro. Which is why he seemed to pretend Astro wasn't there.

Dr, Elefun dipped his head a bit. "No one was hurt I hope?"

"no."

Elefun released his breath. "Good. Good. That's good news"

Tenma smiled just a bit then. "And there's more. The robot is coming in intact."

"What!" Dr. Elefun was smiling now too. "that's wonderful!"

"Well, mostly intact. A street sign clipped off it's head wile it was dashing around. But, it was a clean break, and we still have the head."

Elefun's brows lowered. "What kind of robot was it?"

Tenma face looked pained as he stood up straight and sucked in a breath though his teeth. "It was a public service bot."

Elefun growled as he ripped off his welding mitts and slapped them onto the table. "That's just perfect. The Anti-Robot Rights people are going to love this!"

The Anti-Robot Rights Organization were a growing front. The robots of Metro City have always been able to think for themselves. They were programed that way. They were programed to solve problems so humans didn't have to. And that problem-solving capability had to come with the ability to think creatively, otherwise they would have to be told precisely how their jobs were to be done, all the time. Without that added spark of ingenuity, when something unexpected came down the product line, or there were children playing in a busy street, robots would not be able to make the split-second decisions necessary. It was a little bit Astro's fault really, of this he was aware. Before, robots had their place. They were tools. Nothing more. But Astro changed all that. He represented what robots had the capability to BECOME. And a lot of citizens started to question whether or not robots deserved their own rights. For some of the richest people of Metro city, this was a big problem. They had PAYED to have this property built, and now there was talk of giving this property a daily wage? Preposterous. Should they be able to vote too? To make this even worse, the robots themselves were divided on the issue as well. Some were all for it, wile the rest wanted things to stay the way they are. This was what they were created to do. They were built to serve, why do anything else? So far the debate had raged for years, with no end result. The recent robot violence was causing everyone to take a step backward to reassess the situation. What would happen in a robot revolt? The city ran on robots. They were on our streets and in our homes. Underground sales of EMpulse rifles were the latest rumor going around town. The whole city was on edge. Not just the people. The robots were frightened too. There was something in this city causing them to lose their minds.

Astro wasn't sure where he stood on the matter. There seemed no solution that would please everyone. He was torn between two worlds, because he belonged to them both.

At that moment an assistant of Tenma's popped his head into the door, and all three of them turned to look at him. "It's here.", he said quietly. But the words seemed to bounce around the room.

'We'll be right there.", Tenma replied, and the assistant withdrew.

Tenma turned to Astro. "I want you to go upstairs and start without me son. I'll be up as soon as I'm done."

"But Dad,"

"Go Astro."

As they exited the lab, Astro walked up the right hallway as Dr. Tenma and Dr. Elefun took the left. Astro pretended to wait for the elevator wile they rounded a corner. Then he proceeded to follow them.

Astro stayed a safe distance behind them. As they stopped at one of the lab entrances, Astro ducked into an open hallway closet. They met up with another scientist outside the door. It was Dr. Frank Rubeon. He was a greasy soft-spoken fellow. Kinda short. He was Head of Programming and was doing a lot of the virus detection work.

"Ah, excellent, you're both here. Ready to put an end to all this?", Dr. Rubeon said as he shook their hands.

"I just hope you finally find something this time.", Tenma said with his usual bluntness. Astro knew his father wasn't very patient when it came to failure.

When they entered the room and the doors finally slid closed behind them, Astro slipped out of the closet. There was a large glass window looking into the room. Astro fell to his knees and slid underneath it. He slowly rose just enough to peep in.

There were a large group of scientists already in the room. It was a flurry of white lab coats and blue sterile gloves. This was basically a crime investigation. A headless robot was securely strapped to a wheeled assembly rack in the middle of the room. Every available access panel had been opened and a myriad array of colored data cables stuck out in every direction before they snaked away across the floor. The robots head was being examined by Dr. Rubeon. He began connecting cables to it wile consulting one of the holographic monitors for the proper connection procedure. There was a glass door in the back of the room where there seemed to be even more activity. Many of these Astro recognized as Precision Assemblers. He wasn't sure what good they would be. Frankly he felt they needed more Data Analysts.

Dr. Rubeon finished with the connections and had now attached the head to the body. He looked to everyone in the room.

"Are we ready?"

Astro wasn't sure what would happen. His hands curled into fists. There was slim chance that the robot would break the restraints, he stood ready to fly in if he had to.

Rubeon had his hand on the robots power switch. He looked to Tenma.

Tenma nodded.

The robots eyes lit up as it jerked back to life. Public service bots were designed to look non-threatening. They consisted of gentle curves and soft lines to give the robot something of a motherly appearance. They dispensed information of all kinds. Astro remembered having a conversation with one outside the Metro City post office. This could be the same one for all he knew.

The robot made no sudden moves. It looked around the room to assess the situation. As Tenma walked up to it, Astro tensed.

"State identification.", Tenma said to it sternly.

"Public service designation. Model 12-071. RIN number 12071453890000000. Sixth class. Series 5.", Her voice seemed very sad.

"It seems quite lucid.", said Dr. Rubeon.

Tenma said nothing, never taking his eyes off the service bot. He asked her, "Do you know why you are here?"

"Yes." Again the sad response.

"Do you remember what happened?"

The robot seemed to have trouble speaking for a moment. Then she said, "I remember everything."

"Why did you do it?"

The service bot seemed at a loss for words, like she was having trouble understanding it herself. Her head twitched, causing the attached wires to swing back and forth.

"I had no control."

Rubeon was studying the readouts on the monitor. "The data is in. It's been saved off. I'm not seeing anything viral, but I won't know for sure until I analyze everything."

Tenma took a step back. "Very well. Take it apart. I want every piece scrutinized and cataloged. Understood? "

One scientist knocked on the glass door and two of the Precision Assemblers entered and began rolling the assembly rack into the room beyond.

The service bot began to panic, but it could not break it's bonds. "Wait!", it cried. "Wait!" It kept repeating this over and over. The scientists in the room ignored it completely.

Astro stared though the window in horror. He realized now what the Assembly team were for, of course they could take things apart as well as put them together. Of course the robot would have to be decommissioned. The public would demand it. But to see it happen? Astro wished he hadn't come here. He had to get away from here. He ran. He ran for the nearest window and leapt out into the sky.

His father's voice kept playing in his head.

_Take it apart._  
_ Take it apart.  
_

Unaware that Astro had been anywhere but upstairs, Dr. Tenma was supervising the dismantle. He turned to Dr. Elefun.

"This is going to make a late night."

Dr. Elefun had already had enough of it. He massaged his temples.

"Well I'm leaving you to it. Would you like me to give Astro your apologies before I leave?"

Tenma had forgotten about working with Astro. He experienced a twinge of guilt. But he knew Astro would understand how important this work is. Suddenly a disturbing thought occurred to him. He clapped a hand on Elefun's shoulder.

"Tell Astro I don't want him leaving the Ministry. I don't want him to go outside. Whatever this is, it's still out there. Whatever this is, it's getting worse."

"Tenma." Dr. Elefun was taken aback by the intensity in his eyes.

"Please old friend. I want him safe."

"Of course. Of course." Elefun said softly.

* * *

bum. Bumm! BUMMM!


	3. Chapter 3

Cora decided to take the rest of the night off after all. The responsible thing to do would have been getting a jump on the next project, but instead she found herself calling and telling her parents. They wanted to take her out to dinner for her birthday. There was a new restaurant outside of town, the very first, and Cora couldn't wait to see it.

The city had never gotten back off the ground. It seemed a moot point, once it's citizens found the earth wasn't overran with savages. Well, Cora thought, MOST of them weren't savages. MOST of them were perfectly normal people. And MOST of them were more than happy to welcome Metro City.

Cora's beat-up red hover-car soared above the expanse of new pavement that lead out of town. As she approached the city limits, she could see the tops of the large cranes that marked the advance of the clean-up effort. It was estimated that it could take up to seventy years to clean up all the rubbish that Metro City thought they would never have to see again. Her division was working on ways to cut that time in half. Cora smiled and stuck a hand out the window to cup the air and feel it play against her fingers.

Cora's parents were just locking their car when she pulled into the parking lot. Bricks Restaurant and Grill was another one of those restaurants that tried too hard to be trendy. It was an edifice made of extruded plastic walls, dim lighting and holo-video screens in every corner. The food was no doubt mediocre and overpriced. That's not why Cora was excited to see it. It was the fact that it was outside the city. The foundation was rooted in the earth. It was the representation that was important to her. The city was moving outward into the world. It made a gaudy building with a backdrop of garbage worth seeing. Soon there would be hotels and parks, stores and charging stations. It would grow. The surface citys around it would grow.

The food was just as bad as she thought it would be, but she was enjoying her time with her parents, as boring as it was. The restaurant was very crowded. They had just finished their meal and were waiting on their poor overworked waitress to bring them the check. Cora noticed there were no robots working here. With the recent scare a lot of places were resorting to human employees. It brought the customers back in, but it also left them understaffed.

Cora's mother was passing the time with chit-chat, filling Cora in on the news of family friends that Cora truly had no interest in. Cora was nodding politely, thinking about how her meal was sitting like a rock in her stomach. Her father was looking past Cora's shoulder, watching a tennis match on one of the holo-vids behind her.

"So how are things at work dear?"

It took Cora a moment to realize that her mother was asking her a question. She hadn't known her mind had wandered away so far. The first thing she thought of was the flowers that Astro had given her that morning for her birthday. But she didn't want to tell her mother about that. Her mother already felt that Cora had an unhealthy attachment to the little android. To her mother, he was still just a robot. Hero or no. Cora stroked the rose she had in her jacket pocket. She had brought it with her without even thinking about it. It was getting smashed and torn and the remnants of the thorns were pulling threads. But having it with her felt right.

"Things are good," Cora said. "Well, besides the present circumstances of course. We're two months ahead of schedule." Cora was trying to sound chipper about it.

Her mother let out a small squeal, her eyes full of pride. "Look at my little girl, busy saving the world! Is that how you managed to take off early? Because your ahead?"

"No, Zane stopped by and lended me a hand-" The words where out of her mouth before she realized what she was saying.

"OH how IS Zane?," Her mother pressed her finished plate aside. Her eyes twinkled mischievously as she leaned across the table in what Cora called her girl-talk/gossip stance.

"MOM." Cora rolled her eyes at her. They had conversations like this before.

"All I'm saying is he's a nice young man." Her smile widened. "And he owns his own business. You could build a good life with a man like him."

Cora was mortified. "Gross Mom. It's never going to be like that. Zane is like a brother to me. Anything else would be too weird." _and your preference ISN'T? _

"Besides, he lives in that garage. Do you want to tell your friends that your daughter lives in a garage?"_ HAH. got you_.

Her mother faltered only a moment. "Well I'm certain that if you ever got married you two could buy-"

At this point Cora pretended to put her fingers in her ears. "I'm not listening to this mother."

Cora's mother turned to her husband. "John, talk to your daughter," she said in a huff.

Cora's father finally came to life. "Your mother only wants you to be happy dear." Cora hadn't thought he had been listening. He might not have, it WAS a typical dad thing to say.

"I am happy." She said to them both. "I don't need someone to be happy."

"But grand-kids...," her mother whined.

"No grand-kids Mom! Dad do something!"

Her father shrugged his shoulders and gave her that look that clearly said 'not if I want to live'.

Cora leaned forward with her palms spread on the table and looked from one to the other. She paused to stress the importance of what she was about to say. "I'm an adult now. I care about you both very much, but can you please learn to respect my decisions?" She tried to say it in a way that didn't sound too harsh.

Cora's father did a brave thing then. "We respect your decisions sweetheart." Then he looked at her mother. "Don't we dear." Cora wanted to hug him.

Her Mother had leaned back in her seat. Defeated. "Very well Cora." Cora felt the victory of battle, but she knew the war wasn't over. This would continue another day.

The table was quiet after that. Cora leaned back in her seat and looked around at the holo-vids wile they continued to wait for the check. One instantly caught her attention. It contained shaky amateur footage of another robot running rampant. She tried to remember if this was one she'd seen before. No, this was new. When the camera stopped shaking and it focused properly she could finally tell she was looking at a public service robot ripping a bench right out of the pavement and slinging it into a parked car. Terrified citizens ran in all directions.

_Oh no._

The service bot then pushed the car aside and trundled into a large intersection. The surrounding traffic came to a sudden stop and then lurched forward as they were rear-ended by the cars behind them. The service bot stopped in the middle of the intersection. It seem to be contemplating it's next move as the traffic around it became worse. No, Cora thought, it seemed like it was undecided. Like it was having an internal battle with itself. Suddenly it took off at an amazing speed. It sped between two cars and decapitated itself on a street sign mounted to a emitter tower pole. Cora flinched. She had never seen a service bot move like that. It was surreal.

The whole clip was replayed as the newscaster continued to speak. She couldn't hear what the newscaster was saying in the crowded restaurant, but the captioning was on.

-**damages exceeding $34 thousand credits. No injuries reported at this time. The robot has been transported to the Ministry of Science for further investigation. So far a cause has not been found. Without information to the contrary, it must be assumed that these robots are working on their own. Causing panic and destruction... voluntarily**.-

"WHAT?!" Cora's chair hit the floor with a crack as she stood up.

Several other diners looked up from their meals to stare at Cora. Cora's parents were completely startled. "Goodness dear, what is it?", said her mother, following Cora's gaze. Cora was already grabbing her purse and walking around the table.

"I gotta go. Thanks for dinner. Love you Mom. Love you Dad." She gave them each a quick kiss on the cheek. Quickly she whispered "No grand-kids." to her mother just to get the last word. She was gone before they could say goodbye.

Cora sped all the way to her apartment, and got there just as the sun set. If there was a disaster, and it was after work hours, that's where Astro would try to find her. She could assume that he already knew and would be coming to tell her. He probably had no idea what they were saying on the news. Cora couldn't believe it herself. They had created some fear-mongering up to this point sure, but to publicly state that robots where doing it on purpose? Unbelievable.

Cora's apartment was on the top floor of an older highrise on the east side of the city. She had to invest much more money into her apartment than she did her car. It had to have two requirements. One, that she could look out of the city, to see the surface beyond, and two, that there was a substantial amount of outdoor balcony for Astro to land on. With only two requirements, she didn't think it would be that hard to find one in her price range. Nope. Life is never that easy.

When Cora walked into her apartment the only light was the dim bulb that she always left on in the kitchen. Huh. She really thought he'd be here. She walked into the kitchen and placed her purse on the counter. A cold breeze blew past her as she dropped her keys on the stove. Curious, she walked into the living room. The balcony door was open. So Astro had been here. She closed it.

"Hi Cora."

Cora must have jumped a foot.

"Astro! Jeez." He'd been sitting on her couch the whole time. Cora gave her nerves a second to settle, then crossed the room to turn on the lights.

"I'm guessing you heard then," she said as she flicked the switch.

Astro was really quiet for a moment. He wouldn't look at her. Instead he studied his hands in his lap. "Yeah. I did."

Cora was instantly concerned. She didn't quite make it to the couch when her phone rang.

"Don't you move Astro." She used the tone that told him she knew something was wrong and went into the kitchen to answer her phone. She saw who it was and picked up.

"Hello?" she said, concerned. Dr. Elefun had her number but rarely ever called her.

"Cora, is Astro with you?"

"Yes."

"Oh thank goodness." Relief flooded his voice.

Cora cupped a hand over the receiver, for all the good it would do. Astro could listen in if he wanted to with those robot ears of his. "I think somethings wrong with him though," she whispered.

"Wrong?" Was that panic in his voice?

"He was sitting in my apartment in the dark. Just sitting there. IN THE DARK. He's usually watching TV or, or, or playing video games. I...I think he's really upset about something. Did I miss something at work today?" She was thinking about the service bot.

"Oh. Oh dear." Elefun's mind was sharp. He was very, VERY familiar with Astro's inquisitive nature. It didn't take much for him to put it together. The seconds stretched out as he thought of the implications.

"What?" Cora said as she walked back to her bedroom. She leaned on her dresser and pulled the rose out of her jacket pocket. It was a beautiful mess.

"I believe Astro might have seen something at the Ministry today that he may have found disturbing." There was guilt in his voice.

"And? What did he see?" Cora was rolling the stem between her fingers.

"You did hear about the service bot?"

"Yeah. It was all over the news. Have you heard what they are saying? " Her outrage was plain.

"Yes, well, without a cause, it was only a matter of time before it came to this."

How could he be so calm about it? Cora felt like screaming. "What does does the service bot have to do with Astro?"

"We dismantled it today. I don't know what he saw, but even I found it rather discomforting."

"So? We dismantled all the others too."

"Yes but...well, you'll have to ask him my dear.

"I can try. That's if he wants to talk of course." She wouldn't leave him alone till he did, but the good doctor didn't need to know that.

"If he talks to anyone, it would be you. Would it be alright if you kept him there tonight? Bring him back in with you tomorrow?"

"Astro's always welcome here, but it's really up to him. I can't MAKE him do anything. Remember this is ASTRO we're talking about."

Elefun chuckled. "Yes. I know what you mean. Do try to keep him there overnight. His father is very concerned about him. Then bring him straight to the Ministry."

"No problem boss." She dropped the rose on the dresser, then picked it up and put it back in her pocket.

"Thank you Cora."

Cora hung up.

"Did you hear all that?" She said before leaving the bedroom.

"Yes." Was the guilty reply from the couch.

_Ah, my honest little eavesdropper._

When Cora walked into the living-room, Astro looked up at her. He looked the saddest she'd ever seen him. Without saying a word she sat down on the couch and pulled him into a hug. He met her halfway, practically jumping into her arms.

"I'm so sorry Astro," she said into his shirt collar, without really knowing what she was apologizing for. Knowing only that this was the best thing she could do for him. She was already squeezing him tight, but she managed to squeeze a little harder. They both said nothing. It was so quiet she could hear his body humming softly. She held him for a full minute, then two. Then she pulled away.

Astro was feeling much better. "What is it they are saying on the news?" His curiosity was overriding his sadness.

Cora was relieved when he spoke, she was afraid she would have to cajole him into doing so. She wished he'd asked a different question though, she didn't want make him anymore upset than he already was. Cora took a deep, hesitant breath.

"They are blaming the robots for their actions. Without proof of a malfunction or tampering, they are saying the robots are doing it on purpose." Cora's expression relayed her exact feelings of the matter.

"But that's not true!" His eyes opened to their widest point. "You should have seen her Cora, she was so sad. She knew exactly what she had done. She felt so bad about it. She was so scared." He was rubbing his arms as if the memory chilled him.

Cora didn't want to interrupt, but couldn't help herself. "Wait. The service bot was functional? "

Astro nodded. "She was reactivated. She SEEMED fine. Then...then..." He looked away, then at the floor.

Cora waited. Astro looked like he could cry, only for him that was an impossibility.

"My...my Dad gave the order to have her disassembled."

_Poor Astro._ Cora knew the significance of that. This must be very hard for him. Having long ago come so very close to deactivation himself, by the same man. Now Astro wouldn't allow himself to be shut down. Not for any reason. When his father had suggested it once for an invasive repair, Astro shot off and wasn't seen for three days. Cora wondered what that must feel like. She wrapped an arm around his shoulder.

"Everyone acted like it was business as usual Cora. She was just...just a THING."  
Astro paused. He looked at her then. "Do you think I'm a thing Cora?" His eyes were pleading.

Cora couldn't believe he'd ask her such a question. He knew better than that, he just needed to hear her say it. Cora pulled him to her as she smiled. "You are definitely not a THING, non-robot," she said confidently.

Cora still called him that after all these years. What had started as a joke had turned into a term of endearment. Astro had often asked her about it. The answer was always the same.

_'Cora why do you call me that? You know that I am.'_

_'Because you are so much more than just a robot Astro.'_

Astro smiled at the memory.

Cora was triumphant. "There. I knew I'd manage to get a smile out of you."

But it was short-lived. Astro leaned into her side. The smile disappeared. Cora rubbed his forearm. "What is it Astro?" she asked quietly.

"There has to be someone behind this Cora. Someone who doesn't like robots very much."

"I know. And we know who that suspect is. Those stupid Anti-Robot people. So far all these events have been in public places. To cause the most panic, that's pretty clear. But without any proof..." Cora was so frustrated. "If they are responsible, how are they doing it? How could they hide something that the Ministry cannot find? We know this stuff better than anybody."

"It's all my fault. Robot rights wouldn't even exist if it weren't for me. Sometimes..." Astro sighed. "Sometimes I wish I'd never been built," he said sadly.

Cora did not like this Astro at all. She jumped off the couch and shook a finger at him. "Don't say that! Stop blaming yourself. If it weren't for you this city would have been destroyed ten times over. Your not just some fancy defense-system, as some people like to think, your... your a person." Her voice cracked a little. "Sure you took the job, but it's just a job. Should it be your sole reason to exist? Should we throw you out when you can't do it anymore?_ No!_ Robots should be treated as more than replaceable junk. You put yourself on the line everyday for these people. They OWE you."

Astro had rarely seen Cora so genuinely angry. At first he couldn't tell if she was yelling at him, or the situation. He guessed it was a mixture of both. She had never voiced her opinion about robot rights. He'd always had an idea how she felt, but he didn't know she felt so strongly about it. Astro pushed back into the couch cushions. "You know I don't feel that way Cora. We just want to be treated a little better. We don't feel owed anything." He was talking about robots in general.

Cora seemed to be regretting her outburst. She crouched down in front of him and took one small metal hand into her larger one. "I think you should. Eventually robots will be as advanced as you. What happens then? We need to learn to live side by side Astro. Not one over the other."

Astro had never heard her talk like this before. He'd been thinking about these same things himself recently. They were best friends, how could he not have known this? He leaned forward. "Have...have you always felt this way Cora?"

Cora grinned. "Only since I met you." As if that were obvious. "You've changed a lot of minds Astro. You should feel proud, not guilty."

"But I don't want to cause trouble! I want everyone to get along. I just want things to go back to the way they were." He paused. His gaze was far away. "Like when you were younger," he said quietly. "And things were simple." Cora blinked, but let him continue. "I don't want to be in the way." He made it sound like everyones way in general, but he was looking at her.

_He knows. Oh, Astro, your not in my way. I don't want a normal life if I can't have you._

_Damn you Zane._ He was practically rubbing it in Astro's face this afternoon. She wrapped her other hand around him and pulled him closer, looking right into his eyes.

"Sometimes Astro, the solution isn't clear and the situation isn't the way you would like it. You have to be happy with the way things are and the things you do have." She rested her forehead against his. "I know I am." She squeezed his hand. "Life got a lot better for me because you were built. And now your doing the same for others too." She sat up straight and looked at him. Her eyes were a mixture of pride and encouragement. "Change is never easy Astro."

And that's why Astro always came to Cora. She always knew exactly what to say.

Things were pretty normal after that. Cora made herself something to eat, and they watched some cheesy monster movie.

"Not another monster movie."

"I thought you loved monsters Astro."

"That was before I had to fight them all the time."

Cora stayed up late enough to watch Astro fall asleep. Just to make sure he didn't go flying off without telling anyone, as he was wont to do. Plus, she just liked watching him sleep. Cora found it fascinating. Not only was it adorable, but it also made no sense. Most robots went into a sleep mode when they weren't needed or when they were charging. Not Astro. With an unlimited power source in his chest he didn't need to charge. He shouldn't even get tired, but he did. He really just went to sleep. Astro even had dreams. When she asked him about it, he couldn't explain it himself. Maybe he was running system checks or defragmenting information. Maybe he was just programmed to do so. There was a lot about Astro's programming that Tenma wouldn't tell anyone. Cora knew how his mechanics worked, but that brain of his has always been a mystery.

_Maybe he is just human enough to want to._

Cora finally left the couch. She bent and kissed his forehead, and then she went to bed.

* * *

Late that night the Ministry of Science wasn't empty. Doctor Frank Rubeon was sitting at his desk, writing out his findings. There was no evidence of tampering of course. He made sure of that.

There was a knock on his office door. "Come in," was his barked response. He knew who it was, and he disapproved.

Darryl Striker was a tall man with broad shoulders and a smooth fluid grace learned from years of past military training. He was the president of Striker Arms. He bought out Ministry prototypes and twisted the designs into usable weapons. Dr. Rubeon didn't like working with him, but he was a powerful backer.

"Mr. Striker, I really wish you hadn't come. You shouldn't be here."

Mr. Striker replied in deep strong baritone voice. He responded to Rubeon's statement with indifference.

"It was a very close call today." He wasn't the type to bother with introductions or small talk. Everything he said was short and to the point. His stride was almost a march as he approached. His eyes narrowed, he leant over the desk, casting a shadow over it's occupant.

Rubeon was not intimidated. They'd been working together long enough that he was accustomed to his aggressive demeanor. "This report says otherwise." He indicated the holo-monitor on his desk. Like he was talking to a child. "If the conditions become too dangerous the program interrupt is necessary to avoid human casualties. It worked exactly as it was meant to. I'm sorry that you think me so incompetent that I could not handle the situation with a single keystroke. I'll not have anyone harmed in this little show of yours. I think it's gone on long enough. We both got the hysteria we were hoping for. It's time to end this."

Striker grunted noncommittally, as if Rubeon's statement didn't deserve an immediate response. Rubeon wished he would leave. He didn't want them seen together. Striker looked down his nose as he spoke.

"I want one more."

"Why? Your sales are up. I saw you had a contract with the police force now. So now what?" Rubeon started counting on his fingers. "You have our business, the city's business, I heard your selling to the surface dwellers as well, congratulations on that by the way..." He leaned back in his chair and spread his hands. "Who's left huh? What more do you want?"

Peacetime had not been easy for Striker's business. In the past eight years his sales had dropped so much that the company was failing. Teaming up with the Anti-Robot Rights Organization benefited them both. They got their funding and Striker Arms sold EMpulse weapons to the paranoid masses. Striker envisioned more destructive weapons to follow. There was a new war on the horizon, but after it was over, he needed a way to ensure that the sales continued. Only one thing stood in his way.

"I want Astro."

Dr. Rubeon's jaw dropped in shock. "Are you out of your mind?" Rubeon looked at him for a sign of jest but was met with none. He stood. "You've seen what he can do Striker. You don't take the most powerful weapon ever known and unleash it on the city!" Rubeon ran his fingers though his hair. "I don't even know if the interrupt will work on him. People could die!"

Striker dropped his aggressive stance and assumed one of a business man. "Think what it will do Rubeon, if Metro City's trusted defender turns into her worst enemy. Robot advance will come to a halt. The people will demand simpler machines. Isn't that what you want? Isn't that the whole point of your organization? Don't you want a quick resolution to all this? Cut off the head Rubeon, and the rest will follow."

Now Dr. Rubeon was not an evil man. But he was dedicated to his cause. He knew Striker had his own reason for getting rid of Astro. With the city undefended, Striker would make a fortune building new defense vehicles. He didn't like the manipulation involved, but Striker was right. It would bring a quick end to everything. They were losing the battle before Striker approached him. His plan was working. With the city's forces armed with the appropriate weaponry now, there was a good chance Astro could be incapacitated before anyone got hurt.

Rubeon hissed though gritted teeth.

"Very well."

Striker smiled, it didn't look like it belonged there. Rubeon shivered.

"Perfect. When can you start?"

"Tomorrow."

* * *

_Ewww, mushy relationship dynamics...AND VILLAINS! Well there you go folks, another cliffhanger. I hate to do these things to you poor readers, but suspense is a necessary element. New chapters are posted on Mondays so if the new one isn't up yet it will be I promise. I'm not stopping till the story is finished._


	4. Chapter 4

_Ok, every time you see the word Astro, I want you to take a drink. No. Don't. I'm kidding. You would die. Sorry if this chapter seems overly long, there was a lot of unnecessary stuff I left in that was just for fun._

* * *

"Wake up Astro"

Nothing.

"Hey. Hey. Get up."

Cora was standing in the living room in her pajamas, half a steaming cup of coffee in her hands. The sun had not yet risen.

Astro's eyelids lifted just enough to reveal a momentary sliver of light indicating that his eye disks had powered on. He remained unmoving.

Cora lifted a foot an prodded him with a toe.

"Come on. Get up. I know your awake."

Astro groaned and rolled over. Cora knew how difficult this was going to be. She smiled.

"Hey. Hey. Hey." Her gentle prodding turned into shoving until she was rocking his shoulders. He feebly tried to bat her away. Cora tried not to giggle. Waking up Astro was challenging and fun, and different everytime. She dropped her foot and sipped her coffee.

Astro opened bleary eyes and lifted his head just enough to look toward the window. His head fell back down and he mumbled into the couch cushions.

"It's still dark out."

"Yeah, that's when I go to work," she said, amused. She was loving this.

He wrapped his arms around his head in an attempt to block out the dim room light. "Can't I just fly in later?"

"Oh no, you heard Dr. Elefun. He said your coming in with me, and I kinda got to do what he says. Just because YOU can come in whenever you want doesn't mean I can."

Astro's reply was another groan.

Cora set her coffee down and sat on the couch arm so she could lean over and look at him. He remained still. He wouldn't look at her, but that was normal. Like if he didn't look at her she would just go away. Silly boy.

"I don't want to go." His arms muffled his voice, but Cora picked up the slightest hint of desperation in it.

_He's still upset about yesterday._

Astro finally looked up at her. "Tell them I'm not coming in...tell them I'm sick or something..."

Cora laughed at that.

Astro sat up and grabbed her arm gently. "I'll stay right here, I promise."

Cora's look darkened, she bit her lower lip. "Now don't put me in this position Astro," she said warningly. "You wouldn't stay put for five minutes."

"I will too. Or you could drop me off at home maybe?" He added hopefully. "I just don't want to go into the Ministry today."

"You can ask your father when we get there," she said sternly.

Astro flinched.

_Ah, that's it._

"Your father loves you Astro."

"I know."

"He seems to be worried about you."

"I know."

Cora shrugged her shoulders. "So talk to him about it," she said, like it was the simplest thing in the world, ever.

Astro grimaced. "You HAVE met my dad right?" He said incredulously.

"Look Astro, you can talk to me all you want, but your not going to feel better until you talk to him." Cora said in her insufferable matter-of-fact tone.

Astro fumed. Why does she always have to be right?

When no argument was forthcoming, Cora gave him a hearty pat on the back. "Great. We leave in ten minutes." Then she went to her bedroom to dress.

Astro put his face in his hands and groaned again.

"I heard that!"

* * *

Astro spent most of the day in Cora's lab. He had waved hello to his father and Dr. Elefun in the main lobby as they walked in. Lucky for him they were both busy talking to a trio of other men. Dr. Tenma gave Astro an acknowledging wave and a nod that told Astro they would have words later. Dr. Elefun gave Astro a sheepish look that told Astro that his father had been told everything. He was in so much trouble. He had disobeyed his father, again. It didn't matter how much he regretted it. He just hoped his dad would stop yelling at him long enough that he could tell him WHY he regretted it. He desperately needed his father to give him some solace for what he saw, but he was more than a little frightened. What if he didn't get it? Astro followed Cora upstairs, determined to delay that conversation as long as possible. Maybe he wouldn't have to worry about it till his father took him home.

Cora was looking into a high-power microscope, concentration etched on her features. "That didn't work, we need more power output. Load the next one."

Cora waited.

"Astro." Cora nudged Astro with her elbow.

"Oh. Right. Right."

Cora wished Astro would just go talk to his dad and get it over with. She was happy when she had his help, but today he was just slowing her down. His mind was on other matters and it showed. On a normal day he would run circles around her. He was better at this than she was, not that she'd ever admit it to him. He was brilliant. He had remarkable skills in physics and mathematics. Cora always fancied he could one day be a department head like his father. A robot in charge of the robotics department? How cool would that be? But first he had to be considered a citizen, which he wasn't. Astro didn't work FOR the Ministry, he was property _of_ the Ministry. Property of the Ministry and property of Dr. Tenma. Tenma didn't treat Astro as such, but that was technically what he was. It didn't seem to bother Astro at all. It bothered Cora a lot.

Cora put her mind back to her work. She had told her mother the truth, they were very much ahead, but they couldn't use what they had. The first six prototypes were much too expensive to mass produce, so this, the seventh, had to be made of more cost-efficient materials. It was Cora's job to figure out how to do that, and it was more difficult than she could have imagined. Everything that had been done before had to be retooled from scratch. She was regretting taking yesterday off. She was really worried about the deadline. She had already decided to stay late to make up the difference, but she wouldn't at this pace. Cora pushed herself away from the microscope. She gave her eyes a good rub as she leaned back in her chair. She stood up and stretched her legs.

"Maybe you need a break Astro."

"No, no. I got it. It was this one right?

"We already tried that one."

"Oh."

"Look, Astro, you're no good to me like this. Go smooth things over with your father. Maybe he'll let you off the hook and then you can go play with some kids or climb rocks or whatever it is you do when your not here or saving the world. You know, have some fun."

Astro resisted. "I don't go to school anymore Cora, I'm too old for that stuff." He rolled his eyes at her.

She decided she'd have to be firm with him. "You're not old at all, you never will be. Now get out of my lab." She turned him around started pushing him out.

Cora got him halfway to the door when Astro crossed his arms and planted his feet. He came to a dead stop.

"Oof! Astro! Move!" Cora pressed on him hard but he wouldn't budge.

She tried pressing her shoulder into his back and pushing with her feet, but she was too tall to get the proper leverage and her shoes just kept sliding backwards. It was like pushing against a wall. He may as well have been anchored to the floor. She clung to his shoulder while she caught her breath. She halfheartedly thought about trying to pick him up. "Astro, what do you think your doing?" She said, amused. She wanted to be angry, but this was kinda fun.

Astro looked over his shoulder at her, a smug look on his face. He shrugged. "Oh, nothing. I'm just acting my age."

She couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, ok." She grunted with effort as she continued to try to move him, she was enjoying this. She exhaled in mock frustration. "Fine! I take it back. You made your point. We can sit around and do boring grown-up stuff, just show me your mature enough to... let.. me... win!"

Cora wasn't really expecting Astro to comply, so she screamed when he did. He only moved an inch, but it was enough to make her lose her balance and fall into him. He caught her easily. She laughed in delight and he joined in.

"Getting a lot of work done are we?"

Cora and Astro both looked up to see Dr. Elefun standing in the doorway. They both had enough decency to look embarrassed. Cora stood up and straightened out her lab coat.

"Oh, hello sir. Um, Astro was just, uh...giving me a physics lesson." She gave Astro a glare with a smile behind it.

Elefun nodded knowingly. "I see." He was very understanding for a supervisor, and he smiled at them both. He really enjoyed seeing the fun they had together, which is why he felt bad that he had to interrupt. His face fell and he hesitated, hating that Tenma always made him the bearer of bad news. He walked up to Astro and said the words he'd been dreading all day.

"I'm afraid your father would like a few words with you Astro."

"Um. Ok," he said numbly.

Elefun gave his shoulder a reassuring pat. "Don't worry Astro, he's in a listening mood today."

_That doesn't necessarily mean a good mood_, Astro thought.

Astro knew he'd been dismissed, but he hung by the door, reluctant to leave.

Elefun addressed Cora as he advanced into the lab. "And how are things progressing?" He said as he walked past her. Cora paused long enough give Astro's arm a squeeze. He looked so miserable. She gave him an encouraging smile before he turned to go. It was all she could do.

She glanced in Elefun's direction. "Um, not very well I'm afraid," she finally responded. "We tried some of the new alloys, but we're still having the same conductivity problem." Cora found herself distracted. She was talking to Elefun, but she was watching Astro as he disappeared into the corridor. It was strange, but after trying so hard to get rid of him, she desperately wished she had a reason to call him back.

* * *

Astro dragged his feet down the hallway. He wasn't in any big hurry to make his way upstairs. His footsteps echoed. The Ministry was almost empty this close to the end of the workday.

"Why, hello Astro. Why so glum?"

Astro looked up to see Dr. Rubeon looking down at him. Astro knew who he was, but even with all the time he'd spent at the Ministry, Rubeon had never bothered to speak to him. Astro had assumed that Rubeon didn't like him, but here he was, showing concern about him.

"Hello Dr. Rubeon." Astro said politely.

"How are you Astro?"

Astro almost lied and said he was fine, but he had never been the lying type. Maybe another sympathetic ear would make him feel better.

"I'm in trouble."

"Trouble? How?"

"My dad's mad at me."

"Your dad? Oh, Tenma. Right. Of course. Would you like to talk about it? We could step inside my office?" He indicated the door across the hall.

"He's waiting on me now, I don't think-"

"Oh, pish posh. If he asks, you can tell him I detained you."

Astro wasn't too sure. A few kind words in passing, sure. But to sit down and talk about it? With Dr. Rubeon? Well, he didn't want to seem rude, and he did have a question of his own to ask him. Astro nodded and followed him in.

Astro walked into a sparsely furnished office. There wasn't the usual amount of clutter he was expecting to see. Apparently Rubeon was a bit of a minimalist. He took the seat in front of the desk. Dr. Rubeon wheeled his own around it so he could sit next to Astro.

"So Astro," Rubeon clapped his hands together, "why would Tenma be angry with you?"

"I was there when you examined the service bot. I wasn't supposed to be."

Rubeon didn't understand why that would anger Tenma, but it didn't matter. "You know you should always do what he says," Rubeon said fatherly.

"I know. I was just curious." Astro hung his head, ashamed. Rubeon was surprised at how regretful he managed to look, like he was truly sorry. Astro looked at him a bit hesitant then. "I...I don't suppose you found anything wrong with the service bot yet?" He asked hopefully. There was a lot of emotion behind his words.

For just a moment Rubeon thought about telling this little robot the truth, just to sooth it's feelings, he shook his head to clear it. "No, I'm sorry Astro, but there was nothing."

That made Astro feel even worse. He remembered how frightened the service bot had been. That means there had been no point in taking her apart at all.

"Everyone is starting to believe the robots are doing it on their own." Astro said sadly.

"I'm afraid there is no reason to believe otherwise."

"But they're not. I know they're not. It has to be something else. Maybe somebody else."

"Really?" Rubeon almost smiled as he leaned on his elbow, he disguised it with a look of disbelief. "Were you acquainted with any of these robots personally Astro?"

Astro sighed. "No."

"Then how do you know?"

Astro fidgeted with his hands. "It's not like us sir. We only want to help people. We certainly don't want to risk hurting anyone, we're physically incapable of doing so." Then Astro brightened. "Oh, and Cora made the point that all the attacks seemed made for public viewing and-"

Rubeon interrupted. "Wait. Cora who?"

"You know, Dr. Cora Sutter." Astro thought it strange he'd ask, her lab was right at the end of the hall. He thought everyone knew they worked together. Apparently Rubeon didn't associate with her either.

"Ah yes, she's one of Elefun's, right? Environmental division. Yes, she's working on those little bots that break down the scrap metal for the clean up effort. Elefun won't stop talking about it." _She would be one worth keeping an eye on_, he thought, _she could be trouble_. Rubeon now remembered seeing the two of them together often. "I am familiar with her work. Though I hardly think she has the qualifications to be concocting conspiracy theories."

Astro's hackles rose. It was a mild insult, but he thought he was beginning to understand why his father didn't seem very fond of Dr. Rubeon. Astro said nothing, but his reaction was easily read. Rubeon didn't want him storming out just yet. Just one touch, that's all it would take. Then he could wrap-up the conversation before Tenma came looking for him.

Rubeon spoke very kindly. "Now, now, Astro. We are scientists. We only work with the facts, you know that. Whether robots are being influenced or not we have to consider them dangerous for the time being. Eventually someone is going to get hurt, no matter how inadvertently."

Astro had calmed down. "I know, I just wish there was something I could do. I feel responsible for it all." He looked at Rubeon. "I don't want anyone to get hurt." Rubeon was about to lay a comforting hand on his arm but stopped, arrested by the honesty he saw in his eyes.

"You feel responsible you say?" He said, amazed.

"I know the unrest between humans and robots started with me." It felt weird confessing these same things to a stranger. Astro stared out over the desk and through the window beyond it. "I'm too advanced. I'm too...too human." He thought back to a time when he was. "But I can't help the way I was made."

Rubeon looked at Astro with conflicting emotions. He'd had misgivings about the whole venture, but this, this was supposed to be the easy part. Talking to Astro had been a mistake. Now he was thinking about backing out. _This is a_ _robot! He IS too advanced! Get this over with!_ Rubeon made his decision, the cause comes first. He gave Astro's arm a pat, and he found that it pained him to do so.

"Do not worry yourself on such matters Astro, everything will be alright in the end," the sweet words were acid on his tongue. "Now, your father has waited long enough, you better run along."

Astro got up and started walking out. He wasn't sure he liked Rubeon, but he thought it was very nice of him to listen. Astro turned on his way out the door.

"Thanks Dr. Rubeon," he said sincerely.

Rubeon grimaced and said nothing at all. He leaned on his desk as he listened to Astro's footsteps recede down the hallway. When he was sure he was gone he pulled the transmitter disk off his palm. He realized he was sweating and pulled at his shirt collar. Then with a violence he didn't know he possessed, he placed the disk on the desk and brought his fist down upon it, smashing it into a thousand silver fragments._ Never again_. Unfocused, he watched them shine as he collected himself, convincing himself, that he had done the right thing. He growled, then pushed the glittering dust to the floor. It was time to go. He had previously packed any important documents and expensive equipment. He decided to look for anything forgotten, but he had to hurry. He had less than twenty minutes to escape the city, and he wasn't sure that there would be a Ministry left to come back to.

* * *

Tenma had the biggest lab in the Ministry. Astro walked though the large automatic doors to find it darkened. He finally found his father further in, at a small work table situated near the floor-to-ceiling windows that looked out into the city, illuminated only by the light of the setting sun. His father was an extreme contrast of orange light and darkness.

"Dad?"

Tenma turned then. His face was expressionless for a moment before he gave Astro a tired smile. Astro sagged with relief, his father was in a good mood after all.

"Hello son."

Astro cut straight to the chase, might as well get it out of the way. "I'm sorry I didn't listen."

Tenma gave him a small chuckle. "I should have known better Astro. You always want to be in the thick of it. Not that I'm condoning that type of behavior," he said a little firmly. "You understand now why I told you to occupy yourself here in the lab."

Astro nodded.

"I didn't want you to see any of that Astro. When I tell you to obey, I'm only doing it to protect you."

"But she was operational." Astro said meekly. "Did you have to take her apart dad?"

Tenma took a deep breath. "We have to take them all apart son. I have to assure the public that a defective robot has been permanently deactivated, but that doesn't mean I enjoy doing it."

That was exactly what Astro needed to hear.

He took his fathers sleeve. "Couldn't you just lock them up and say you did?"

Tenma shook his head.

"But it's not their fault."

Tenma hugged his son. "I know. We'll figure it out. That's why I don't want you going out until we do. I can't risk it happening to you."

Astro's eyes widened in surprise as a cold chill ran down his back. THAT'S why his dad wanted him at the Ministry? It didn't have anything to do what Astro did yesterday. Him? Malfunctioning? What a terrifying thought. "Dad, nothings going to-"

And that's when his limbs locked up.

Tenma backed up to look at him.

"Astro?"

Astro's arms folded in on themselves as he engaged his arm cannons.

"Astro!" Dr. Tenma backed up into the worktable with such force that it tipped and everything on it clattered to the floor. The chair rolled off into the darkness.

Astro had never been more afraid. He had a horrifyingly feeling of detachment. He could see that he was moving his arms but had no control over their movement. He felt like he was being pushed aside as something else was taking over. He felt himself slipping away, yet still aware of everything.

"Dad! I'm not doing this!"

Astro heard the familiar whine as his cannons powered up.

The last thing he saw of his father was the look of fear on his face before he was forced to jump up and fly, his rockets at full blast. He shattered his way though one of the giant windows, the force of his passing blowing out every window nearby.

Tenma had fallen into a protective crouch during the blast. He sat up just in time to see Astro disappear into the city. He stood up and stumbled to the emergency alarm, safety glass falling off of him like raindrops.

* * *

Elefun had decided to stay late with Cora. He was inspecting her work chart as she set up the next alloy for testing. "I see that you tried fifty one and three, but what happened to fifty two?"

Cora had her arms full as she approached the table. She sighed. "Astro must have forgotten to mark it down, honestly that little-"

She didn't get to say anymore as a large boom made the windows rattle. Cora froze as she looked at Elefun. "What the hell was that?" They both stood silently still.

Elefun ran past her to the window as more explosions were heard. As Cora looked she dropped everything in her arms onto the floor.

The city was on fire.

The emergency alarm sounded.

Cora realized Dr. Elefun was trying to pull her away from the window, but she couldn't stop looking at it.

"Cora! Cora! We have to go!"

Time finally sped up. Cora turned from the window and they both ran for the door. As they made it to the stairwell the door banged open and out limped Dr. Tenma. He twisted his fist into Elefun's sleeve. "You have to evacuate, get out of the city." He said to them both, just loud enough to be heard over the alarm. He was breathing hard and he looked half mad.

Elefun broke his grip and grabbed his shoulders. "What's going on here Bill?"

Tenma was dazed, his eyes glassy. He worked his mouth silently before he said, "It's Astro."

Cora couldn't, wouldn't believe it. She stood stock still, looking at nothing.

Elefun tried to grab their stationary forms and pull them into the stairwell, but they didn't budge.

"Come on you fools!" And then he took a longer look at them. "Oh, no. Please, please come. Bill... Cora, please."

Then the floor buckled. All three fell to their knees. The overhead lights sparked and went out. The emergency alarm was silenced. The building rocked again and knocked them all over. Cora rolled, and then the floor fell out from under her. She screamed, flailing her arms. She almost had a handful of electrical conduit before her body weight pulled it out of her grip. She fell one more floor before her second attempt was successful. The friction burned her hand but slowed her fall, it slid though her fingers until it was gone, then she finally hit solid floor, hard.

And there was Astro.

At least something close. His eyes were softly glowing, but there was nothing in them. No pupil, no iris, just blank. It was the scariest thing she had ever seen. His clothes hung off of him in tatters, as if he'd been flying though metal, concrete and fire. He was a nightmare to behold, and she managed to land right in front of him.

He flew backward, seemingly just as surprised as she was.

As frightened as she was she had to shout.

"ASTRO STOP!"

And he did.

He slowly drifted down to land ten feet away. His arm cannons disengaged. Cora slowly got to her feet. She didn't approach him. As she watched his eyes dimmed and faded to brown. He looked at his hands like he couldn't believe what they had done, and then he looked at Cora.

"Cora."

Cora backed against the wall. Astro almost fell to his knees on seeing the fear in her eyes.

"Cora, please help." His eyes flashed.

Cora hesitated._ He's still malfunctioning._

"Cora please, don't let them take me."

_Flash Flash  
_

"Don't let them take me apart!"

His words tore at her. Tenma would have to dismantle him. She knew he'd insist on doing it himself, it would kill him. It would kill her. She couldn't let him be taken. Her resolve quickened her movements and calmed her nerves. She didn't know if Astro was exempt from the robotic laws. No one but Tenma knew, and he wasn't telling. Astro had an abundance of free will, but she could never imagine him hurting anyone, until today. Astro may just break her in half but at least she'll die knowing she tried. She walked up to him with more confidence than she felt, her tone so solid that she hardly recognized her own voice.

"I'm turning you off Astro."

Astro clasped at his chest. "No Cora please." His eyes filled with fear, hurt and betrayal.

"I'm not going to let them have you Astro," she said gently. "I'm going to get you out of here, but to do that I need to shut you down." She took his face in her hands.

Astro relaxed at her touch. He knew it was the only way, but he still feared it. Why should she save him after all he's done? She could just as well leave him to his father. He felt selfish. He understood now the sacrifice the service bot had made. In it's moment of lucidity it chose to decapitate itself than cause more destruction. It made him feel like a coward, his will to live was too strong. He opened his chest panel to allow Cora access. Blue core light lit them both.

Astro looked into her eyes. "You'll turn me back on Cora?" His eyes flashed again, and again. They were running out of time.

She smiled. She was at once the girl he knew so well. She rolled her eyes at him. "I'm not about to decommission my best friend Astro."

"I'll wake up?"_ flash flash flash_

"You'll wake up." She reached for his core but his hand stopped her.

"Promise? "

"I promise." She pressed her lips to his temple as she removed his core. His eyes widened before slowly sliding closed. As Cora tucked the blue core in her pocket, she could hear a soft _click click click_ as his components came to a stop. He swayed on his feet. Cora scooped him up as he fell, she was running on so much adrenaline that he seemed to weigh nothing at all.

She could hear loud shouting coming from the front of the building. Many men. Many men with guns, coming for Astro. She ran to the stairwell hoping she could sneak out the back. She was sure they wouldn't expect Astro to take the back door, she was really sure they wouldn't expect him to have an accomplice.

She was halfway into the stairwell when the door opposite was opened. She found herself looking across the hall at Dr. Tenma. Their eyes met. She feared he would stop her. Demand Astro from her. She clasped him tighter to her. Tenma's face was a mask. Cora could tell there were a lot of thoughts running behind it. His eyes were wild.

"Go Cora. I'll distract them. Keep him safe."

Cora nodded to him and ran. She didn't stop till she ran out the back and into the cool night air. She ran down the alley that ran behind the Ministry. She made her way to the back of Zane's repair shop, and almost screamed when she found him already there waiting for her. His hover-car was a foot in the air and ready to go.

"Get in," he said as he took Astro from her.

"What, we're just going to run? Couldn't we hide in the garage?"

"Nope. All they have to do is talk to anyone in robotics to know where you went."

"Nobody saw me..."

"Security footage runs on a separate power feed Cora. Oh they saw you all right." He opened the trunk.

"Your going to put Astro in the trunk?" Cora was outraged.

"What? You think we should buckle him in up front?" Zane smiled. Cora got in the car and pouted. Couldn't he ever be serious? Zane jumped in and they took off, straight up. With the city in turmoil, no one was following or enforcing the traffic laws.

"Where are we going to go Zane."

"As far from the city as possible. We need to hook Astro up to a system analyzer, a great big one."

"And you have one of those?"

"Oh, yes. Back at the garage."

"But we can't go back there."

"Nope."

"You know someone else who does?"

"Outside the city? Only one."

"Oh, no. No Zane. No." Cora couldn't believe he'd even consider it.

"Time to go home Cora." He said with delight.

"THAT is not home!"

* * *

_Things are speeding up now. And I had the audacity to give Cora a surname, GASP! I want to take this time to thank everyone for their great reviews, you guys are awesome. But lets see if you still like it after the next chapter, I'm not done torturing our favorite robot. Yes friends, things get worse.  
_


	5. Chapter 5

"My life is over."

Cora was leaning against the window of the hover-car. It was dark, so there wasn't much to see. She watched forms of light and shadow whiz by with a numb detachment. Zane had brought the car down to a more respectable level, just above the ground where it belonged. Now that Cora had a moment to think, she realized how much trouble she was in.

Zane snickered. "Your mother is going to be sooo mad at you."

"Zane," Cora warned. She didn't even look at him. She was in no mood for his jovial attitude. Especially because she may never see her mother again. Unless she turned herself in. Then her mom could come see her, in jail.

Zane intermittently glanced from the road to her. He grew serious and concerned. "Hey, I'm just messing with you." He shook her knee. "We'll get everything straightened out...somehow."

She envied his optimism, but it kinda made her want to smack him.

"Besides, think if you hadn't. He would had just kept going Cora...he would have kept going until he was finally shot down and...well, you know..." He gave the wheel a turn. "The city should be thanking you. Well, you know, they probably would have... if you hadn't run off with him."

Cora sighed, fogging the window. "I know. I would have done it all the same if I had to." She looked at Zane. "They're not going to stop until they find him. It's just..." She cradled her head in her hand. "A life on the run? I can't go home. I've lost everything."

"Yeah," Zane said, "but we have Astro. Would you still enjoy that life without him?"

"No." She didn't even have to think about it.

"The way I figure it, we have at least a few days. It's been so long since anyone's had to track Astro that - I hope - they'll first have to dig up his energy signature. I'm sure Tenma will try to drag that out. I'm hoping they still use the short-range scanners. I don't think they ever had a reason to put any money into that equipment."

Cora threw her hands up. "How do you know all this? How did you even know I was going to be coming out the back of the Ministry? "

Zane looked a bit guilty about that. "Aw, well... I didn't really. I was evacuating with everyone else. It was so late, I thought l'd pick you up at your apartment. I didn't know you were still there until I saw you coming down the alley."

Cora did smile at that. "Huh. Some rescue."

"Damn. I was really hoping to take credit for that too."

"And Hamegg's? Really? I can't believe you still talk to him."

"He's not that bad a guy. He was really good to us before our falling-out. So I decided to keep in touch. Yes, he's a little evil, and greedy, and a horrible coward, but not that bad."

"Sounds bad enough to me. He's going to turn Astro in the first chance he gets."

"I don't think so."

"Oh, really? Why not? He hates Astro."

"Ahh, that is true. Though not as much as you would think. He could be of help, he knows his robots."

"So do you. So do I. I don't want him to so much as touch Astro. We don't need him."

"We need his analyzer."

Cora just glared at him.

"For Astro? Please?" he pleaded. "There has to be something to find in there. It's the only way to clear his name."

"And what makes you think we'll find anything?" Her voice was wary, but hopeful.

"I have my suspicions."

Cora waited for him to elaborate, but he didn't. As usual. She huffed and sunk down in her seat. "Fine. I'll tolerate Hamegg. But if he turns on us I told you so."

Things were quiet in the car as Cora glared out the windshield. Zane was right and she hated it. A proper analysis takes time, well at least it does with any analyzer outside the Ministry. They would have surely been caught if they had stayed at the repair shop. But still...

Cora noticed Zane glancing at her.

"What?"

"Can I ask you a personal question Cora?"

Cora scoffed. "Uh, no. But that's never stopped you before."

"Well," He seemed to have trouble finding the right words. "You know I care about you two, and it really isn't my business, but..." Cora knew she was going to hate this already. "We almost lost Astro today. And I've always wanted to know. Have you...have you ever told him how you feel? You know, about him?"

Cora looked at him blankly. That WAS a personal question. It was the last thing she expected. Zane wasn't the type to ask such things because he knew Cora didn't like answering them. She squirmed in her seat. "He knows how I feel," she said, finally. But when she said it, it came out sounding unsure.

"Yeah, uh, I'm not really sure he does. Have you actually told him? You know, with words?"

Cora gave him an exasperated sigh. "Look, things are weird enough between us." She couldn't believe Zane would make her spell this out. He knew what was going on. What's BEEN going on. "It's an impossible relationship. Ridiculous really. We both know that. It seemed different when we were younger, and there might have been something, but now he's half my size and almost half my age."

"Don't forget the robot part."

Cora ran her fingers though her hair. "Yeah, well...I always forget that part." She sighed. "We have an unspoken agreement. If it's ever said it can never be unsaid. It's not worth risking our friendship over."

Zane whistled. "Man, that IS complicated."

"Yes. It is. Satisfied? I can't wait until you find someone so I can poke my nose into YOUR business."

But in the back of her mind she realized it felt good to finally talk about it.

He ignored her and continued. "The kid lives a dangerous lifestyle. I'm just saying you might want to get that out in the open in case something happens to him. Like what almost happened today."

"No," she said firmly. "Absolutely not." Then she winced and shifted her weight. Now that the excitement had worn off, her body hurt all over. "I don't know. Maybe. I know your right, but I know if I do, things will never be the same. It will make things worse."

"I'm right? You? Admitting I'm right?" He was bouncing in his seat. He took his eyes off the road long enough to look directly at her. "Well I want you to think about it. If you don't, and the worst DOES happen...? I don't want to think what kinda mess you will turn into."

Cora's look was downcast. She started to hide her face in her hands, but stopped. Her left hand had a heck of a of a friction burn from her fall, and it was really starting to sting. "I should have moved on a long time ago. Then this wouldn't even be an issue," she said sadly.

"Hah. Yeah, you tried that remember? Don't think I saw how you were breaking his little heart? It was killing him. And that's why you stopped. You never really wanted anyone else anyway, so don't try to pull that on me. You two were so close when we were kids a crowbar couldn't pull you apart. I just think that he needs to know. He deserves to know." Zane beat the steering wheel for emphasis. He'd been wanting to say these words to Cora for a long time. He didn't want to sound harsh, but he thought she was being stupid. "Yes, it would make things weird. Well, MORE weird." He refused to say it would make things 'worse' because he couldn't imagine anything worse than the way they were living now. "But if your not happy being normal, then don't try to be." As Cora began to argue he raised a finger. "Ok, let's say you DO find that perfect young stud. And MAYBE, eventually, Astro will have some hot robot girlfriend,"

Cora visibly winced at that.

"But he will always wonder. Can't count the times he's tried to ask me about it."

This information took Cora a moment to process. "Really?" Her heart swelled at the thought before she beat it into submission. She tried to imagine the two of them sitting around, discussing her.

Then Zane noticed her cradling her hand in her lap. "Hey, you ok?" He could tell that she had taken some abuse by the state of her clothes, but Cora was tough. He hadn't assumed she might be injured.

Cora gave him a pained grin. "When Astro started tearing up the Ministry I fell though the ceiling." She raised her brows. "I think I fell though two ceilings."

Zane's look held nothing but concern now. The ceilings of the Ministry were high and vaulted. "Your lucky to be alive." Amazement in his voice. "Anything broken?"

"No. I'm just a giant bruise. I'll be fine."

Zane blew out a relieved sigh. Then he became pensive. "I wonder though, with a whole city to destroy, why would he go back to the Ministry?"

With that question in the air they pulled up to Hamegg's. The place looked just as sad and decrepit as she remembered it.

_For Astro_, she thought. She took a deep breath as the hover-car settled to the ground.

It seemed an eternity before Hamegg opened the door. Zane didn't even bother to ask if he could come in. He barreled past Hamegg with Astro over one shoulder.

"Hey Hamegg," he said casually.

Hamegg's expression was one of surprised outrage. "Hey! Wait a minute. You can't bring that thing in here! Are you crazy!"

Zane paused to look at him. "I'm not asking," he said with predatory grin before leaving them behind, making his way upstairs to the workshop.

As if this sort of thing happened everyday, Hamegg let him go and turned back to Cora. She had remained on the doorstep with her arms folded. Her opinion of him blatant in her stance and on her face.

He opened his arms as he gave her a warm smile. "Ah! Cora, sweetheart! Look how you've grown. It's been far too long."

Cora's expression didn't change. She pushed one of his arms down and to the side so she could brush past him. There was more force applied than necessary. She didn't say a word.

Hamegg harrumphed as he watched them walk away.

When Cora walked into the workshop Zane was trying in vain to find a spot big enough to put Astro down close to the analyzer; a refrigerator-sized box in the corner. Every available space was cluttered. Take out boxes, half finished projects, disposable cups, heaps of old parts and molding stacks of paper were everywhere.

"What a slob," Cora said, disgusted. She swiped her arm across the nearby work bench and knocked everything on it to the floor. Zane placed Astro down and started picking garbage off the analyzer control panel. "Well...he's gone a bit downhill." He said as he dropped an old banana peel onto the floor.

It saddened Cora to see her old home in such a state, and she thought it had been a mess back then. She really had been fond of the place. Hamegg lived alone now. All the children had found homes in the city. Cora still talked to them all on occasion. Hamegg had sold off his games and now did modest repair work. Like Zane. No small wonder the two kept in touch.

"Hey! Hey!" Hamegg said as he came in at the noise. "There's no need to trash the place!"

"This place is already trashed," Cora quipped. "Look, we made a clean spot."

Hamegg ignored her and walked to Zane. "You would have to bring him here of all places," he hissed. "They aren't just talking about him on television, he's the ONLY thing they're talking about on television!"

Zane was untangling the various analyzer wires. He didn't look at Hamegg as he worked. "I'm calling on that favor you owe me Hamegg. We really need your help with this."

"With THIS? THIS!" He pointed at Astro. Cora stood defensively. "Of all the things...oh boy."  
He looked to the ceiling. "Someone must really hate me..."

Zane was stretching the wires out to reach Astro. "Now, now, Hamegg. We all must pay our dues," he said soothingly. He glanced at Cora. She saw the smile in his eyes. _Karmas a bitch._

Cora pointed to the handful of wires. She picked out two. "These adapters here. That's all we'll need." Zane nodded. She knew those workings better than he did. He wasn't used to working with a robot this advanced. He sorted them out and threw the rest back as Cora opened Astro's chest panel. She spent a moment just looking at him. Except for his tattered clothing, he looked no different now than he did before she woke him this morning. Was that only this morning? _Why didn't I listen to you Astro?_ Maybe he'd still be safe at her apartment, waiting for her to come home. She couldn't help but feel she could have done more, but the idea of it happening to him had never even crossed her mind. She was lost in this thought when Zane gently nudged her with the cables.

Cora hooked them up. One to the right of his power center, the other behind his left ear. She brought the blue core out of her pocket as Zane calibrated the analyzer. The blue core was beautiful. She had seen it a hundred times but she had never before held it. She watched the shades of blue play across it's surface. The blue in her eyes caught the light and made them glow. It was hard to believe something so small could create so much power.

Cora suddenly pulled it to her protectively as Hamegg tried reaching for it.

"DON'T you TOUCH it!" She yelled.

Zane turned at her outburst, and actually laughed. "Yeah, I wouldn't get too close Hamegg. That kitten has claws."

"I see." Hamegg pressed a hand to his heart as it had skipped a beat. He shrugged sheepishly. "I only wanted to see it."

Cora backed up and pointed a warning finger at him. The look in her eyes was positively feral.

"Yyyyeah. I wouldn't try that again," Zane said with a smirk. "She punches. I can't recommended it." He was switching on a mishmash of old flat screen and CRT monitors. Their white glare lit up the dim workshop. Then Zane put a cautious hand on Cora's shoulder. "You ready?"

She never took her eyes off Hamegg. "Yes," she said venomously.

Hamegg decided it was time to take the offensive. He didn't liked to be pushed around in his own home. "Are you sure this is a good idea? Now HOW do we know he's not going to go bonkers and kill us all? I really didn't want to die today." He snarled a bit. "I think we should throw him in a closet and forget about him." He was looking at Cora, trying to bait her.

She wouldn't rise to it. She took a breath until she exuded calm, and spoke evenly. "The last robot that was examined by the Ministry was brought in damaged, but functional. Once reactivated, it was fine." She turned her back to him as she leaned over Astro.

"It was just fine?" Hamegg said, skeptical. "The malfunction just magically fixed itself? The old computer fix? It was FINE?"

Cora looked over her shoulder at him as she placed Astro's core into his chest. The most malicious expression on her face.

"It SEEMED fine," she said slowly.

Hamegg threw his arms around his head and prepared for the worst.

Astro opened his eyes as Cora smiled down at him.

"Hey sleepyhead." She winked at him.

"Cora." He said softly. He smiled back.

He sat up and the two enjoyed a hug while Zane began looking at the readouts. When Hamegg was sure Astro wasn't about to blow up his house, he joined Zane at the monitors.

"That's A LOT of information." Hamegg said as he pulled up a chair. "We really have to comb though all that?"

Zane scrolled down, his eyes darting back and forth as he looked for anything unusual. "This is only the processes of the last hour."

"WHAT? That's insane. Look at all that. This will take forever. Wait. Wait. What are all these?"

Zane squinted as he scrolled up and down to take in the scope of what he was looking at. "They look like...they look like risk assessments." He said quizzically.

Hamegg slapped his forehead. "They can't be... look at them, there must be thousands of them!"

Astro had scooted to the end of the bench so he could look over their shoulders. He didn't get to see the inside of his brain everyday. Cora had a hand on his back so she could grab him in case he decided to jump down and upset his cables.

Zane looked back at Astro. "Do you remember running risk assessments Astro?"

Astro shook his head. Cora grabbed the cable next to his ear so he didn't shake it out. "No. I don't really remember having control of anything."

"Well you were very busy doing controlled somethings. I didn't know you had this kind of processing power."

Hamegg was having fun despite himself. This really was the most exciting thing that had happened in years. "Go back up, the assessments are an end result, lets find where it began." Hamegg had snatched the keyboard and began doing it himself.

"Stop. Stop. Stop," Zane said.

"What?" Hamegg asked.

"What's that?" Zane tapped the monitor.

"It looks like nonsense. That wouldn't do anything."

"No. Maybe it looks like nonsense now...but..."

"Ahhh. Yes I see. These are counting down."

Astro was following all of this. He was growing angry. "So it IS a virus."

Zane and Hamegg both looked very satisfied with themselves. "Yes," Zane said. He pointed at the figures. "This looks like an incubation period. And THIS is a termination sequence. That's very sneaky. And brilliant. In another ten minutes this whole line will cease to exist. Clean. No evidence. Oh shit, lets get some copies of this, quick!"

Cora leaned against the table as Zane and Hamegg upended drawers to find some portable storage devices. She was relieved that it seemed this whole mess was going to have a quick resolution. She looked down at Astro. He no longer looked angry, nor relieved. He looked sad. "Astro? What's wrong?" She bopped his shoulder with her own. "We won. Mystery solved. We get this to the Ministry, clear our names, and go home." Cora hoped Astro hadn't blown up her apartment.

"Did I hurt you Cora?"

Cora exhaled noisily. "Yes. Technically. But you were not quite yourself."

He took her injured hand and held it carefully as he looked at it. "I'm so sorry."

"It will heal. That's what humans do."

"What of the rest of the city?"

"Too soon to tell. You were only down for maybe forty five minutes." She really wanted to watch the news broadcast, but that was the last thing Astro needed to see right now.

"I did a lot of damage Cora. I remember. What if I..." His small form began to shake.

Cora gripped him. "We don't know. Don't upset yourself. It wasn't your fault."

"I might have hurt people." He couldn't bring himself to say 'killed'. "They'll be looking for me. They'll track me. I'm putting you all in danger. I... I should turn myself in."

Zane and Hamegg both looked up from their work at Astro's admission. Cora looked shocked. She didn't go though all this for nothing. She should have known his morality would eventually override his self-preservation. That was typical Astro.

"NO!" Both Zane and Cora said in unison.

"Yes," said Hamegg.

Zane walked up to Astro. "Look, Astro, don't do anything rash just yet." They both knew that if Astro really wanted to do something, there was nothing they could do to stop him. If they tried, he'd take off though the roof. Cora was twisting her good hand into the remains of his shirt, her only known way of restraining him. It would only work until he ripped the shirt off, but it slowed him down. She hoped he would be hesitant to take off while he was still attached to the analyzer cables. Zane put a restraining hand on his knee before he continued. "Nobodys looking for me, I'll go into the Ministry with the proof. Everybody will see that your not defective, and THEN you can try to turn yourself in. Ok?"

Astro seemed to be mulling it over when Zane's phone rang. Cora gave him a long suffering look as he answered. What a time for a phone call.

"Yeah?" Zane said into the phone."...yeah they kinda found me...yeah he's up. He's fine." Zane smiled at Astro.

Astro cocked his head in question and looked from him to Cora. _Who?_

Cora shrugged. _Got me_.

"Yes we did," Zane said triumphantly. He sat down by the keyboard. "Yeah I'm sending you a copy now. I'll bring in a hard copy tomorrow. I made a few, just in case." Then he swiveled in the chair to look at Astro again, he had that amused look on his face. "Funny you should bring that up, he was just discussing that." Astro waited. "Yeah." Then he moved the phone away and spoke directly to Astro. "You have to sit tight. No turning yourself in. Father's orders."

His father? Zane was talking to his father? Astro had never know them to say more than a few words to each other, let alone chatting each other up on the phone. Zane spent a lot of time at the Ministry, but Astro had never seen him in his father's lab. For a moment Astro felt a rush of irrational jealousy. He'd never been able to speak to his father so informally as Zane was doing now. Had Toby lived, him and Zane would have been very close in age...

He pushed the thought away. It was silly.

Zane had hung up. Astro thought his dad would at least have wanted to talk to him. He had enough of this. It was time for some answers. Astro removed the cables himself and jumped down. He'd had rough couple of days and he was tired of feeling like a victim. The determined look on Astro's face was down right scary. He stomped his way to Zane.

"Your going to tell me what you know."

"Hey, whoa. Slow down there Astro." Zane was rolling the chair backwards as Astro advanced. Zane held up his hands, all his words came out in a rush. "Your father and I have been looking at certain members of A.R.R.O. for suspects, but we didn't find any leads until now."

This stopped Astro short. "What?"

"But they slipped up, they didn't plan on Cora getting close enough to turn you off with the evidence still intact."

Astro's hands had curled into fists. "But who?"

"If it took place at the Ministry within the incubation period, it has to be someone there."

"Rubeon," Astro seethed. Cora feared he was going to take off right then and there.

Zane had a thoughtful look. "Yesss. It would fit. He is the head of Programming for a reason." He tapped his upper lip. "I take it you had an encounter with him today?"

Astro nodded, to angry to speak. He felt like a fool.

Zane rolled up to him. "We had no idea Astro. We thought you would be safe there."

It was at that moment that Astro realized he felt like destroying something. His shoulders sagged. _No. I've had enough of that for one day._

"I need to be alone." He wouldn't look at any of them. Then he walked out.

The room was quiet after he left. All the occupants unmoving. Even Hamegg. Zane looked at Cora. "Think he'll go flying off?"

"I got it." She left to find him.

Cora found that Astro was still in the house. She had thought he would have gone outside, but no, she found him in the dark, sitting on his old bed. Well, a small portion of the edge that Hamegg hadn't stacked with junk. She had almost walked right past him. She found it surprising that he still felt some sentimental attachment to it.

"Hey. Is it rude if I join you?"

Astro just glanced at her and said nothing.

She began pulling box after box from around Astro and stacking them on the floor.

"Hey could give me some light here?" She said as she dug her way deeper. "I'd like to make this bed, well, into a bed."

Astro's eyes lit up, and he helped with the remainder. Cora gave the sheets a good brushing off. Then crawled in and flopped down. The bed was too small for her tall frame, but she didn't mind.

"What are you doing Cora?" Astro said morosely.

"Stealing your bed. No. I'm kidding. I thought you might want to talk or something, but I can see that you don't. You, ah.. you want me to leave?"

"No." He crawled in and lay next to her. They lay in companionable silence for a few minutes before Cora spoke.

"Hey, you remember that last sleepover at Zane's house?"

It was very off topic, but Astro was very fond of that memory. Funny Cora would bring it up. "That was like, seven years ago."

"Yeah, but wasn't it a blast? Then we all decided the floor was too hard and we piled into Zane's bed together. He got smashed up against the wall while the twins slept in little balls at the end." Cora laughed.

"You kept rubbing your feet on them." Astro was smiling now. "Then they both grabbed your ankles and threatened to throw you off the bed."

"Yeah but they didn't. I did deserve it though, I'll give them that."

Astro rolled on his side to look at Cora. He propped his head on an elbow and looked down at her.

Cora looked up at him. "What?" She was still smiling.

"You held me all night." His voice was dreamy.

"I didn't want you to fall out of bed, Astro." It was a total lie.

"Mmmhmm," he said, disbelieving.

Cora was feeling pretty content. It had been a very long, stressful and painful day. Now she had a bed underneath her and a happy and alive (sorta) Astro beside her. His scrutiny not withstanding, she found herself starting to drift off. She slowly opened an eye to find him still staring at her. "Do you mind?" She smiled. She realized she had managed to steal his bed after all.

"You kissed me." His voice was a whisper.

Her eyes opened at that. She had wondered if during his shutdown he would remember that part. "So? Little girls run up and kiss you all the time, Mr. Hero."

"But you never have."

_Not that you know of._ She closed her eyes and ignored him. _Maybe if I don't look at him he'll go away._

"Will you ever do it again?"

"No Astro."

"Can I kiss you?"

_Shit. With that little stunt I crossed the boundary, now he wants to cross it too._

"Go to sleep Astro."

Astro looked down at her fondly. _That wasn't really a no_, he thought. He leaned down and kissed her temple, exactly as she had done to him.

Cora had to take a deep breath. It was such a small gesture, but it effected her profoundly. Her heartbeat sped up. It drummed in her ears. She was sure Astro could hear it without his enhanced ability. Her defenses started to crumble, and her body started to tremble. _It's just a kiss! A little one! Calm down!_ Suddenly all she could think about was how close she had come to losing him.

In one lithe movement, she twisted up and brought her lips to his own. Astro's eyes went wide. Cora had successfully surprised him again. His shock only lasted a moment. His eyes slid shut as he leaned into her. He thought he saw colors behind his eyelids.

Cora's mind was warring with her heart. They were fighting for control. The battle continued to cause her to tremble.

_This is wrong! You have to stop! _

But when Cora parted the first kiss, she went down for a second, then a third.

_STOPSTOPSTOP!_

When she did, she didn't pull away. She pulled a very euphoric Astro into a tight embrace. She felt the beginning of tears sting her eyes. Her voice broke as she spoke past the lump in her throat.

"I'm so glad your here Astro."

She was glad he was alive. She was glad he was near her. She was glad to know him and for his very existence.

Astro gave her one more kiss to show he understood, and they both started to drift to sleep. Wrapped in each others arms, it was like reliving the memory of their youth all over again.

Cora had one last thought before sleep claimed her.

_Everythings changed. We can never go back. What have I done?_

* * *

_More romance. It makes me want to puke. This chapter was supposed to have some action and somehow it turned into a bunch of character introspection. BORING. I apologize for the profanity, or as they are sometimes called, 'sentence enhancers'. OH, and I HAD to give Cora that 'one ring' moment. The next chapter will hopefully be a little more exciting. It might be a little late, I'm moving soon, and I got ALOT of crap.  
_


	6. Chapter 6

_This chapters going to seem a little short. Believe me, it would have been WAAY too long if I hadn't cut it in half._

* * *

When Astro woke, he was alone. He gasped in surprise as he sat up. He had thought Cora was still wrapped around him. The bed was not only empty, but cold. She had been gone for a while. His heart was already breaking. _She's going to change her mind_, Astro thought. She'll act like it didn't happen. She'll back off. Just like every other time they start to get too close. He didn't blame her. What could they ever have together? Absolutely nothing. But to never have THAT again? He'd imagined that moment for years, but now he thought it would be less painful to have never have happened at all.  
_I shouldn't have brought it up_.  
_I shouldn't have pushed it._

_But I really wanted to._

_And I want to kiss her again._

Astro found Cora sitting on a rickety bench at the table watching TV with a big bowl of cereal. She almost spilled it all over the table when she saw Astro walk in.

"Look Astro! I'm on TV!" She said excitedly. She seemed far too happy about it.

Astro's confused look was understandable. When he looked at the television, there was Cora's Ministry identification photo, along with a police contact phone number. Astro ducked his head, ashamed that she would be so publicly humiliated on account of him. He muttered out another pitiful apology, feeling absolutely wretched. "I'm sorry I've caused you so much trouble."

Astro sat down to her right. As close as he could without actually touching her. As it was he had to fight to keep himself from doing so. He wanted to give her some space, but he couldn't bring himself to sit on the far side of the table.

Cora was watching him closely. His body language told her everything she needed to know. _Isn't that cute. He's so awkward. He doesn't know what to do with himself. He's expecting the usual distance. I'll be merciful_. She grabbed his waist and pulled him closer, much to his elation.

"Don't be sorry, Astro. You're worth it. Besides, at the moment, you're in far more trouble than I am. Except that IS a horrible picture of me. Blah, I don't know WHAT I was trying to do with my hair!" She gave her head a shake. "OH!" She exclaimed angrily, slamming her hands to the table. "You should hear what they are saying. The city gave you a great big demotion, because apparently, now your nothing more than a dangerous weapon." She said ludicrously, dragging out the word 'dangerous' with obvious distaste. "They make you sound like a bomb or a doomsday device. Honestly." She gave him a sly smile then bopped his nose with her fingertip. "As a weapon your faulty. A REAL weapon would have been able to hurt SOMEBODY."

This gave her the effect she was hoping for. Astro's eyes widened and his mouth dropped open. He'd never been so glad to be called faulty in his whole life. Cora continued. "Though how you managed that is beyond me, even with those gobs of risk assessments you were running. In or around everything you hit was vacant and devoid of life. Oh, yeah, and that new Cherrywood high rise, the one that was almost complete? Their going to have to start that all over again. It still stands, but it's blown to hell." She leaned in. "I thought it was ugly anyway," she said conspiratorially.

Astro could scream with relief. He felt like flying, dancing, jumping for joy. He did none of those things. He wrapped his arms around Cora.

"Hey, ow. Not so tight. Fell out a ceiling, remember? You were there."

"Oh, right." He looked so happy it was heart-melting.

"Just don't ever do it again." She teased. "If you do, next time you better catch me."

"You know I would have," he said, abashed. "That's what brought me out of it, I think. Seeing you hurt."

"Oh, come on, I'm not really blaming you," she gave his arm a friendly pinch. "I was scared for myself, yes," She cupped the side of his face. He leaned into it, closing his eyes. "But I was really scared for you. You were...different. You didn't look like yourself at all, that was the worst part. I was afraid you weren't in there anymore."

"Oh?" His eyes opened. This disturbed him. He remembered how frightened she had been. Frightened of _him_.

"I thought I'd lost you." She softly kissed his cheek. She lingered there, expressing her acceptance of this strange new step in their relationship. _I must be crazy_. She exhaled a warm breath across his face, then sat back to observe his reaction.

Astro's whole body shook as a current ran up his spine. He took a deep breath as his thermostat registered a sudden spike in temperature. He looked at her though unfocused, half-lidded eyes.

_Yeah, you have that effect on me too_, she chuckled inwardly. She slid her arms around his neck as they quietly gazed at each other. Then, something unspoken passed between them. Sometimes, between the best of friends, words aren't necessary.

_I'm not going to hide behind my walls anymore, Astro. We're going to give this a try._

Astro nodded, amazed, joyous, as if he had heard her speak every word out loud.

"Ahem."

There was Zane in the doorway. They both jumped. Cora frowned. How long had he been there? Astro frowned too. They were in the middle of a moment. He was hoping to kiss Cora again. Now that moment was ruined. He planted both fists on his hips as Zane sat down across from them. He shot Astro an apologetic glance.

"And where have you been?" Cora snapped. "You had better been at the Ministry. I hate to think you've been skulking around here all morning, spying on people."

"Actually, I do an inordinate amount of that," he said in that frustratingly enigmatic way of his. "I'm not going into the Ministry. They're just now restoring the power there, so I'm meeting Tenma at his place."

Oh, how Astro wished he could go with him. He missed home. He would much prefer it to being stuck here.

Zane looked at Cora. "You didn't give him the bad news."

Astro covered his face with his hands and peeped between his fingers. "No..no, no, that's ok. I really don't want any. Thanks."

Zane drummed his palms on the table, fidgeting before he spoke. "There were a few injuries. Some of them severe. NOT caused by you," he said quickly as Astro opened his mouth. "Everything happened so quick, there really wasn't a whole lot of evacuation. There were riots. The people were scared, they didn't know you didn't hurt anybody. And they took it out on everything. A lot of robots were deactivated or destroyed," Cora took Astro's hand under the table and intertwined her fingers with his own. "Then when that wasn't enough they predicatively started smashing and looting. I got a call from the shop that the front window's been busted out." Most shops scrap old robots, Zane's didn't. This fact had been prominently displayed outside. It had made him a target. "Rubeon got the panic he was hoping for. This will set things years back, even if we can show it was a virus all along. We need to be able pin this on a certain perfectly human group of perpetrators to turn the tide. But we haven't the proof that he was causing it or covering it up. All we have is a code that could have come from anywhere or anyone." Zane rubbed his eyes then ran his hand though his unruly mop of hair in frustration. "Can you remember anything about how he transmitted it Astro?"

Astro shook his head sadly. "No."

Zane sighed. "Then we got nothen'."

Hamegg finally made an appearance. He came into the room with a very large burlap-wrapped bundle in his arms. It must have been quite heavy, for when he dropped it onto the table it landed with a thunk and caused Cora's forgotten cereal to jump off the table to spill to the floor.

"Hey!" She said as she almost got a lap full of milk.

Hamegg wasn't paying attention. He was grinning at Zane.

Zane grinned back. "Is that what I think it is?"

"Yes." Hamegg said proudly. "Finally got one." He clapped his hands together.

"Good work." Zane was really excited. "I owe you big."

"Cash is fine thanks."

"You got it." Zane started digging though his pockets.

Astro and Cora watched this whole exchange in total confusion, looking from one to the other.

Cora spoke up. "Uh. Hello? Hey, what's going on? What is that?"

Hamegg smiled at them both. Which didn't bode well for either of them. He flipped the burlap wrapping open with a flourish.

Astro found himself staring straight down the barrel of an EMPulse cannon.

"WHOA!"

Cora tightened her grip on his hand as he almost fell backward to the floor. It was a dirty trick to pull. When Astro righted himself, Cora gave Hamegg a look that should have killed him.

The cannon was huge. Like unnecessarily so. The kind of weapon that had to be supported on the shoulder to be held. The trademark rotary generator looked a bit old fashioned, but functional. It was either brand new or had been well taken care of. To Astro and Cora, it seemed to gleam with malicious intent. It was capable of emitting a high-energy radio wave which depending on the amplitude setting, could do anything from briefly interrupting Astro's systems, to shutting him down, to frying his circuits. His fear was understandable. This thing looked like it could take out a hundred robots ten times Astro's size. It made a horrible scraping sound as he used a single finger to push it away from him. A look of distaste on his features, like he'd prefer not to touch it at all.

Hamegg and Zane were mooning over it like they would fancy automobile. Zane was pelting Hamegg with questions as he counted out the payment.

"What kind of range are we talking about?"

"Oh about twelve hundred meters."

"No kidding. And the capacitor? What's that hold?"

"Try five thousand Joules."

Zane whistled. "Really? No way that was made here on the surface."

Cora stood up. "Hey! Hey! Time out." She finally got their attention. "That's not just a gun, that's a CANNON. There's a CANNON on the table. Why is there a CANNON on the table?"

Hamegg sneered as he looked at Astro. "You know, just in case."

Astro started to make a very rude gesture when Cora pinned his hand to the table.

Zane intervened. "Stop it you two. No fighting. Hamegg didn't mean that Astro."

"Yeah.. you know, I kind of did."

"Shush." Zane snapped. "Come on. Let's play nice. Please?"

Hamegg shrugged arrogantly, but looked away submissively. He mumbled. "Yeah. Yeah. Fine. You know I spoil you kids... bringing rogue robots home." It wasn't an apology, but his voice had softened. In truth he was enjoying their company, including Astro. But he wasn't above giving him a hard time.

Cora felt slightly compassionate at the sound of his tone, and any anger she had drained out of her voice. It only came out mildly sarcastic. "Ok, then. Zane dear, could you please tell me why you purchased this highly illegal piece of machinery here?"

Zane leaned forward and patted the barrel lovingly. "These, and others like them, are popping up all over the place. Easily accessible to civilian hands. I've found a lot of the sellers, but I've yet to find where they're getting them. I'm hoping that this baby," he gave the cannon another pat. "will lead me to the manufacturer. It's made to look like it was made here, but I suspect it was made in the city. I got some people who know this stuff better than I do to look at it for me."

Cora looked at Zane like she didn't recognize him. "What the hell Zane? Your playing detective with Tenma, AND your tracking arms deals? That's not the Zane I know. Who are you?"

Zane inhaled and held it. He steepled his fingers before letting it out. He looked at them both from under his brows. Cora and Astro knew this look. Zane was about to drop a bomb.

"You guys remember the RRF? I'm kinda in charge of that now."

Astro and Cora couldn't have been more surprised if he said it had been raining unicorns. Zane had always been secretive, but this was bigger than could be imagined. They both shook their heads in disbelief.

Zane smiled at them. "Ah, but I don't think you understand. It's not just for robots anymore. Humans too. There are hundreds of us. Your dad is one Astro." Zane pointed and Astro froze. "That's why you rarely see us together. I don't ever want it known that he's associated with the group."

Astro couldn't believe it. For a moment he could only sputter. "I don't...I can't see him...but why? Why would he get involved?"

Zane chuckled. "Isn't that a little obvious, Astro? You, as a robot, have no rights. Your property. He knows he's not going to be around forever and he wants you to have every opportunity that Toby Tenma would have had. A real life. To do whatever you want, not just the crazy shit you get away with now, but the boring stuff too. He wants you to be able to inherit, to have a salary, own property..vote..." He looked from Astro to Cora and back again. "Among other little human things..."

Zane rubbed his forehead and sighed loudly. "He really cares about you. If you're a citizen than you can't be disassembled when you act funny. You get a trial like everyone else. He wants to make sure you're safe when he's gone. Even if he has to put his reputation on the line to do it." Zane looked contemplative. "He worries me sometimes though. I get the feeling he might favor the other extreme. While I'm seeking equality, he seems to feel we'd be better off with robots in charge. But then again he never struck me as a people person." He rubbed his eyes again. He'd been up all night gathering intel from contacts and there was still so much to do. "Speaking of which, I have to go." He pushed himself away from the table. "No fighting while I'm gone children." He shot Hamegg a warning glance as he strolled out. "I'm checking that cannon for discharge when I come back so don't even think about it."

"Nuts." Hamegg snapped his fingers.

Then Hamegg left the room himself under the pressure of Astro and Cora's twin glares.

* * *

Zane knew something was wrong as soon as Tenma opened the door. His eyes were even more intense than usual and his posture was all wrong. Zane entered, confused. Tenma was trying to silently convey something to him that took him a moment to understand. By the time realization dawned, it was too late. As Zane started to backpedal he was struck from behind. He fell forward and hit the floor hard. His vision was swimming.

"Hmmf. He doesn't look like much." Striker said as he pulled Zane to his feet and bodily dropped him in a chair.

Rubeon still had his gun on Tenma. "It's not as I suspected either. That brat has been in the Ministry for years. Under my nose this whole time. Check his pockets." Rubeon's gaze trained itself on Tenma. "I hope you're not expecting any more guests Doctor."

Tenma said nothing.

Striker had produced Zane's copy and threw it to Rubeon. Then he got out his own gun. He pointed it at Zane. He then primed the weapon as he looked at Tenma.

Rubeon furrowed his brows. "What are you doing? We got what we needed, let's go!"

"No," Striker said. "You got what YOU needed. I'm not finished." Striker's eyes narrowed. "The Doctor here is going to make a phone call."

* * *

Astro and Cora had gone outside to the yard; no longer able to share the house with Hamegg after his rude behavior. Plus they really needed a breather to collect themselves after Zane's surprising admissions. Cora stood next an old hulking quad with the seat opened up, with the intent on getting it to run again. With Zane gone so was the transportation and she didn't like that idea at all. Primitive as it may be, it was better than nothing. Astro was underneath checking the giant tires for damage before trying to re-inflate them.

"I had no idea your dad cared THAT much for you Astro. I mean I guess I did, but he always seemed pretty strict and distant."

Astro stood up and brushed off his hands. "Yeah. I can't believe it myself. I'm a little angry that we're always the last to know about these things."

"They're just trying to protect us I guess." Finding nothing wrong Cora flipped the seat down and started helping Astro fill up the tires. They worked in relative silence, the only sound was the loud hum of the air compressor. They both took a break when they were done. Sitting up against one of the oversized tires.

Astro stared around the yard. "It feels so weird to be here again. It feels like a lifetime ago."

"Yeah."

Astro kicked around some rocks with his boot. "You used to think I was a real kid. You ever think about that? Like if I had been?"

Cora heard his real question. '_Do you ever wish I was?_'

"No Astro. I don't. If you, or Toby, or whatever...hadn't died, you would have never been made. I'd still be living down here and you'd still be living in the clouds. I never met him, so I don't know how similar you two really are. No, if things hadn't played out just the way they did...I would have never met you."

Astro took a lot of comfort in that. He'd often wondered. Sometimes he imagined his living self bumping into Cora on the streets of Metro City. But she was right. It would never have happened that way. He took her hand.

"So what are we exactly?" He asked a little timidly. "I mean, can I call you my girlfriend yet? I would really like to." He smiled up at her. "My really tall cougar girlfriend."

Cora was appalled. "Astro! You cheeky little..." Cora had a few choice names that were contending for the honor. None of them very nice.

"Really pretty! My really, REALLY pretty..." he dropped his voice. "...cougar girlfriend." He couldn't help himself.

She punched his arm. Hard. Only because he was the most durable person she'd ever met. She overdid it though, and she only ended up hurting herself.

"Ow! Damn your stupid metal epidermis!" She shook her hand out. Astro took it and kissed her knuckles. It made her shiver. She snatched her hand away from him. "Ok, that's enough of that."

Astro put his hands behind his head and gave her that audaciously smug look. "You can't fool me anymore, I know you love it."

"Ooooooh! You impossible little creep. Why do I put up with you?" She was trying not to laugh.

He pulled her close. "But you will keep putting up with me, right?" He asked quietly.

She rested her chin on top of his head. "Forever and ever." She whispered.

Astro sighed in contentment at her words. He felt like he was living in a dream.

Cora's phone rang.

She pulled it out of her pocket and looked at it. "Hm. It's your dad," He always called her first when he wanted to talk to Astro. She answered it. "Hello Dr. Tenma," she said politely.

Tenma sounded a bit put out. "Cora, why doesn't Astro answer his phone?" Cora knew immediately that something was wrong. Astro didn't carry a phone. When he didn't break them on accident, he was breaking them on purpose. Astro didn't like anyone to know where he was. He could have had the hardware directly installed, but he opted for a music player instead. This had created much contention between him and his father, but his dad gave up the fight years ago.

Astro was hearing this all too. But he didn't need the cryptic message to know something was wrong, he could hear it in his father's voice. Cora and Astro exchanged a glance as Cora played along.

"I'm sorry sir, I don't know, I haven't seen him since last night. He could be anywhere by now."

"Well if you do..." a pause. "Tell him it's safe to come home.." another pause. "And I need to see him right away." Tenma's voice was shaking. It reminded Cora of the last time he had spoken to her, his voice full of anguish.

"Yes sir. I understand sir."

Then he hung up.

Cora immediately grabbed Astro's arm.

"Don't you dare! He was giving you a warning! Don't squander that!"

"I have to Cora."

"But you know it's a trap!"

"I'll be careful."

"You don't even know what you're up against. A whole police task force? Those A.R.R.O jerks? That snake Rubeon?"

"I'd like a chance to rough him up."

"And if he reinfects you? What then?"

He quickly stepped back. Breaking her grip.

"I'm sorry Cora."

"No. No, Astro please." Tears began welling in her eyes.

He looked at her solemnly as he jumped up in the air. His boots fired up and he was swiftly gone in the afternoon light.

Cora fell to her knees.

* * *

_Sorry if I got a little crass in this last chapter. I was feeling frisky. But on my former girl scout honor I swear I'm keeping this sweet and moderately clean. Comments? Suggestions? Criticisms? I'm totally listening. Leave a review. Oh you know that Radioactive song by Imagine Dragons? That's not usually my flavor of music but I can't get it out of my head. Sunday nights after I watch The Walking Dead, I'll turn that song on while I belt out the rest of this story. I'm damaged._


	7. Chapter 7

_Remember when I said things were going to get worse? This is when that happens. The whole 'rated T just in case'? was because of what I planned to write in this chapter here. It's really dark. I can't even recommend that you read it. In fact I suggest you don't. Not until I get the next chapter up next week._

* * *

Cora was staring at the dirt. Blurred into a tapestry of browns and yellows. Where her tears fell, new rich hues appeared. _What am I doing? Feeling sorry for myself? I'm wasting time. I have to do something._

_Do what? Catch Astro?_ She laughed to herself. _I'd have better luck catching a star or a sunbeam._

_I can't believe he left. He can't be told what to do at all. He's going to get himself killed. Always gotta to do what's right, don't you, Astro? Can't think of yourself for once, you reckless little snot?_

Cora sighed. _Unfortunately, that's one of those things I love about you_.

All these thoughts took mere seconds. Cora was up and on her feet in less than a minute. She wiped her face and jumped on the quad. It gave her a roar that lifted her spirits, then it sputtered and died.

"No!"

She tried it again, and again, with the same result. She planned to have all day to work on it, she hadn't time to check everything. Damn these fossil fuels. This gas is probably years old. What a stupid idea this was. Cora sagged against the instrument panel. She cried into her sleeve as she uselessly twisted the throttle.

She was startled when she felt a hand on her back. She sat bolt upright to see Hamegg standing next to her.

He recoiled quickly, just in case she tried to strike him. "Ran off did he?" He asked gently.

Cora was angry and a little embarrassed to have him see her in such a weak state. She quickly tried to wipe her tears away. Here was someone she could detonate her frustration on. "What do you care anyway?" she spat, bristling with hatred. "Get away from me."

But Hamegg didn't go away. He stood quietly and looked up at the sky. Patently waiting for her to say more.

The ember quickly died. She couldn't afford to indulge in fighting. She needed an ally, no matter how detestable. "Something went wrong," she sniffled. "Tenma's in trouble. Which means Zane is too. And now Astro." She felt so alone and helpless. "What am I going to do?" It came out as a pitiful whine, and Cora hated herself for it. She hid her face in her hands to attempt to dam her tears, but they just kept coming. "He's gone back to the city to face who-knows-what. He's been in some dangerous situations before, but...nothing..nothing like this." Astro was nearly indestructible. She never had to be so worried about his safety before.

Hamegg was biting his lip. "You step one foot in the city and you're going to be arrested." Was that concern in his voice?

"I know. But I can't just sit here."

Hamegg was doing some serious contemplating. Zane was a good friend. About the only one he had really. But Zane knew the risks of that stupid endeavor of his. Hamegg had already got far more involved in it than he ever wanted to. He was surprised at how bad he felt for Cora though. She didn't even like him. Cora was always a strong one, but now... to see her so distressed and overwhelmed..._ I must be getting soft,_ he thought.

"I know we've had our differences in the past," he began. "and I don't really approve of your 'friendship' with Astro..."

Cora looked startled. "Is it that obvious?"

"Oh, you better believe it. These eyes don't miss anything sister." He chuckled a bit. "Plus Zane might have let a few things slip. He's really enamored with the two of you, I'll never understand why. So, perhaps..I'm not certified to pass any judgment. Don't get me wrong, I still think Astro is a pompous ass, but nobody's perfect. No one should have to die for it." He dug in his pocket and held out his car keys.

Cora had a moment of shocked confusion before she tried to take them.

Hamegg pulled them out of her reach. "I suppose I can't talk you out of this?" he asked hopefully.

Cora had jumped off the quad as she tried for the keys again. "No." Her voice was very determined.

Hamegg wasn't finished. He kept them out of her grasp. "And I want you take the cannon with you."

The audacity of this guy. She growled.

"NO."

"You might need it. You know that." The keys disappeared as he crossed his arms. "That's my condition, sweetheart. I think it's very reasonable."

She was thinking it over. Just because she had to take it didn't mean she had to USE it.

"Fine."

He handed her the keys.

She didn't leave right away. She looked from the keys in her hand to Hamegg. "You won't come?" She really didn't want him to, but she was a bit frightened with the idea of going alone.

He shrugged. "This isn't my fight."

She cocked her head. "You really ARE a coward."

"Guilty." He smiled, quite unashamed. "I think your crazy for going."

"We'll discuss my psychological problems later," she said distractedly. She took a step away, but hesitated. She jingled the keys in her hand. Hamegg was taking quite a risk on her behalf. A strange compulsion overcame her. She turned and enveloped him in the most unexpected hug she'd ever thought to give.

"Thanks."

Hamegg's voice took on an emotional timbre. "Don't tell anybody."

* * *

When Zane finally came around he let out a large groan. He was certain his head had never hurt so bad. When he tried to clasp it he found that his hands were restrained behind his back. He felt metal biting into his wrists. For a moment Zane couldn't understand why. _Oh yeah. That's right. I'm in some kind of trouble again._  
He opened his eyes carefully in case any encroaching light would cause his head more pain. Which it did anyway. Tenma was in a chair next to him. Zane could see that his hands were handcuffed together also. They were otherwise unbound. _Should have tied us to the chairs. Amateurs._ His captures were not in sight, but he could hear voices in the next room.

"What happened?," he whispered to Tenma.

Bill Tenma looked terrible. He seemed a little disheveled, physically unhurt, but his spirit was obviously broken. His watery eyes barely looked at Zane when he responded.

"Rubeon came for the code." His voice was thin and wispy. "He destroyed my copy and yours." His voice trailed off. He was having trouble continuing.

The copies weren't the problem. Tenma knew there were others. There was something else. Judging by his inability to speak, Zane had a pretty good idea what he was worried about. Or rather, who.

Zane rotated his head on his neck, about the only expressive movement he had available. He regretted it and winced. "Oh, don't tell me he's coming?" He said, exasperated._ What a disaster._

Tenma knew Astro would come. He knew he was damned no matter what he did or said. He could only hope that Cora could talk some sense into him. A small hope that was too. He knew his son better than that.

"They _want_ him to come."

Zane clenched his eyes shut. _That's even worse._ _Who knows what they have planned for him_. "How many people we talking about here?"

"Just two. Rubeon, and one other. He seems familiar. I can't place his name."

"Is he the one that hit me?"

"Yes."

"Then he's mine," Zane snarled. "What do they want with Astro? I thought they got what they wanted out of him?"

Tenma's voice was forlorn. "Apparently not."

Zane stood up then. He quietly sneaked his way to the doorway where he flattened himself against the wall so he could do some much needed eavesdropping.

"Your going to try using THAT? Have you even tested it yet?" Rubeon's wheedlely voice said.

A grunt. "No time like the present." The voice was rich in bass.

"I don't think your tiny mind can comprehend what a dangerous idea this is. I think it would be wise to leave."

"I'm aware of the risk."

"I think not. Otherwise you would be using a less fallible method," Rubeon snapped.

Zane had to smile to himself. If he's ready to leave then he knows nothing about the other copies. He must think them stupid. Which was totally him. Rubeon thought everyone was stupid. At least that's what he's heard. Lucky for them it was very true. _What a dope_.

Zane heard them approaching and quickly started back to the chair. Not fast enough. A strong hand grabbed the back of his jacket and lifted him easily. Zane turned his head to better see his aggressor.

Darryl Striker. There's the manufacturer he was looking for. No more speculation necessary. Of course they were working together. He felt foolish that it had to come to this before he made the connection. Zane had a whole file on this guy in his home above the repair shop. The photographs didn't do him justice. Darryl Striker was a big man. All muscle. He had to outweigh Zane by two hundred pounds. _This is going to take more finesse than I thought._ He now understood why they had been so poorly restrained. They didn't pose a threat. There was no way they would get past this man. Zane used his best poker face to keep his recognition to a minimum. Striker had no idea Zane had been making investigations and he didn't want to give him reason to suspect such. Striker allowed Zane to stand on his own but kept a restraining hand on him.

Rubeon came into Zane's view. "Ah, the whelp is awake."

Zane had to fight to keep from grinning. Rubeon's face was a mess. He was sporting a shiner and a split lip. At one point Tenma must have managed to give him a couple licks. He risked a quick glance at Tenma to convey his approval. Zane had to speak to him several times late last night to talk him out of seeking Rubeon out to do just that. They couldn't look like the aggressors here. But you should never invoke a fathers wrath. Rubeon made the mistake of coming here and saving him the trouble. Some of Zane's mirth must have been evident on his face.

Rubeon stuck his nose in the air. "You find something amusing?"

Zane didn't acknowledge his question. Instead he hung his head and feigned defeat. "How did you know I was coming?" There were very few of his contacts that knew he was going to be here today, all of them he trusted.

Rubeon gave him egotistical sneer. "Please. Give me some credit. Who would benefit most from exposing the truth? You simpering sympathetic robot-lovers. I knew all I had to do was tail Tenma and eventually one of you would come out of the woodwork,"

_He doesn't know who I am! He thinks I'm just a messenger-boy. Hah!_

Rubeon wasn't done with his boasting. "I'm a master programmer. I was tapping into the phone system before breakfast!"

_Yeah to bad you didn't think of that sooner smarty-pants. Then you'd know about all the extra copies I made._ Zane was relieved the leak didn't come from within the RRF.

Zane's gaze narrowed, his eyes boring into Rubeon's. "So what do you need with Astro? You'll be lucky if he even gets here, the whole city wants him destroyed." _Forgive my harsh words Bill._

Striker made a queer chuckle behind him and Rubeon smiled. "Oh, that's fine with us. Well, actually, that's my friend's business here. Or should I say good FOR his business?" Rubeon seemed to be making a jab at Striker's expense. Zane got the feeling the two didn't really get along. "Astro will be destroyed sooner or later anyway, but for some reason he's obsessed with making sure it gets done." Rubeon raised one brow as he looked past Zane at Striker. "It's completely out of my hands I'm afraid. The man's on a warpath." The revolting little man leaned in close to Zane's face. "What we need from you is to be respectable hostages and insure Astro's good behavior."

* * *

It was taking Astro much longer to get home than he would have liked. He had a growing sense of urgency that he had to subdue. It started as soon as he reached Metro City, like they were just waiting for him. He had to dodge and weave and fly out of the range of EMPulse rifles and plasma blasts alike. The pulse rifles were the worst because you couldn't see them coming, and they scared him far more than a plasma blast, at least he could take quite a few of them. He was fast enough to outrun them all, but he still found himself constantly hiding from the flying patrols. He finally took a bit refuge between some large utility boxes on a rooftop, waiting for the patrols to move on. He sat down and leaned back against a humming exhaust vent and folded his arms around his knees. _Everybody HATES me,_ he thought sadly. Astro wanted to cry. His face scrunched up as he rested his forehead on his wrists. _What am I going to do?_ Even when it was proved to Metro City that it wasn't his fault, would they ever trust him again? Would things go back to normal? Or would he always see the same fear in their eyes that he had seen in Cora's? Astro wished his friends could be here with him now. They would have something encouraging to say to make him feel better. _I wish none of this had ever happened. Well, almost none of it._ His spirits lifted as he thought of his night with Cora. Snuggled into her shoulder, with her all around him, hearing her heartbeat, feeling her warmth. He relaxed just thinking about it. He couldn't ever remember being so at peace.

_I want to do that every night, for as long as I live._

He felt terrible about upsetting her so much. He never wanted to make her cry. _You know I had to leave. I'll make it up to you somehow Cora._ Why did it seem that every time one thing seemed to go his way, ten other things went wrong? Astro stood up. He didn't have time for anymore brooding. The patrols were gone. He had to save Zane and his father. He knew his dad would be upset about his coming, and Astro would get an earful later, but what did he expect him to do? Nothing? Yeah right.

Astro finally managed to get home without incident. He sat on a nearby rooftop, looking across the street, trying to figure out how he was going to sneak in unnoticed. This was going to be tricky. _We have way too many windows. And the outside terrace is the only decent place to land._ Perhaps he just had to make an appearance. Draw them out. No, that was still to risky. He needed to know who he's up against before showing himself. In the end he flew up to his bedroom window. Seeing no one, he opened it and crawled in. When no danger seemed evident he continued though the rest of the house. _I don't like this, it's too quiet and too easy._ The door to living room was open. Through it he could see his father and Zane. His lip curled a bit on seeing Rubeon, and then there was a man he didn't recognize. They both had their backs to him, quietly murmuring to each other. They kept glancing out at the terrace and the expanse of windows above and around it. They expected him to come in that way. They both held guns. Though the large stranger wore a harness that held several more. There was a duffel bag at his feet that no doubt held weapons too. _Oh, my. Are those all for me? _Astro thought.

Zane saw him first. He glanced at the men and then back at Astro. His eye's expressed his distress.

_Get out of here Astro!_

Astro crossed his arms and shook his head.

Zane grit his teeth. _Don't be difficult! This is serious!_

Tenma had seen Astro too. His expression matched Zane's own.

Astro needed to free their hands. First he needed a distraction.

Zane felt relief for a moment. Astro had backed up and disappeared from view. Then he felt apprehension. It was too much to hope that he would simply leave. Zane nudged Tenma and gave him a nod. _Get ready for anything._ Tenma nodded back his acknowledgment.

When Astro reappeared he had one arm cannon out. He swung into the living room, walked right behind both men and sent a bolt right over their heads and out the immense terrace window. It made a sudden and tremendous noise. Both men crouched, covering their heads and ears. Most everything blew outward. A hail of small glass fragments was accompanied by a sudden blast of wind.

Astro didn't break his stride, the concussion was still echoing when he got to Zane and his father. As soon as Astro broke their bonds, they both immediately launched themselves at Rubeon and Striker with a ferocity that startled Astro.

Striker had recovered first. He met Zane swinging, which Zane had to immediately dodge. As soon as there was space between them Striker raised his gun to fire. Astro flew up and snatched it right out of his hand. Astro grabbed the back of his harness and lifted him up before he could grab another. Striker deftly slipped out of it before Astro could even lift him off the floor. Astro flipped head over heels. _This guy is no joke_, Astro thought. Striker didn't look back, Zane had advanced to confront him. Striker stuck him with a blow that knocked him flat. Astro dropped the harness and flew in to intervene as Striker bent to hit him again. But Striker didn't hit Zane. In a fluid movement that defied logic, Striker had rolled to the floor and reached into the duffel bag. What he pulled out of it was unlike any weapon Astro had ever seen. The barrel was far too wide, the stock was way too big. Striker gave him an exultant and thoroughly hideous smile. Astro had only enough time to turn his body sideways in an attempt to keep the blow from impacting him right in the chest before he was blown right out of the apartment, over the terrace and into the sky.

Tenma had tackled Rubeon and now had his struggling form pinned to the floor. He looked up at the sound and saw Astro was gone. "Toby!" He screamed. He snarled at Striker. "What have you done! What was that?!"

Striker continued looking down the weapons sight. His eyes sparkled.

"Something new."

He put the weapon down as the sound of sirens became apparent. He grunted. Then he leisurely packed all his weapons in the duffel, and walked out.

Zane, dazed, and with much difficulty, got to his feet. He had enough recollection to know that Striker was getting away. "I'm going after him," he slurred. "You'll be ok with him?" Zane said as he nodded at Rubeon's prone form. He was looking particularly submissive now that his muscle had walked out on him.

"We'll be fine." Tenma didn't say this to Zane. His intense glare focused on Rubeon. Tenma wasn't done with him yet. Zane hoped he managed to get his fill before the police arrived.

* * *

Astro was in an immense amount of pain. He barely pulled up in time to prevent himself from crashing to the street below. He was confused. He stopped and wavered in the air. He was still taking damage. He was afraid to look. When he did, he screamed. His entire right side from his shoulder down was covered in a wriggling silver blue sheen. It was impossible. Unthinkable. He was covered in thousands of nanobots. Nanobots that he himself had helped to create. This was Cora's project, in a more horrible and destructive form. HE was the scrap metal. As he looked down he could see a thick cloud of fine dust drifting off of him like smoke. They were breaking him apart one microscopic piece at a time. He scraped at them with his left hand out of panic. He knocked off a few dozen, the rest were thoroughly burrowed into his skin and eating their way deeper, only now they had spread to his left hand too. He forced himself to calm down and think. They only had enough charge for a twenty minute run-time. _That doesn't help much,_ he thought. _At this rate I'll be gone in fifteen_. Astro heard sirens. Patrols were coming. _Great._ _Just what I need_. Astro took off. Several spotted him and gave chase.

Cora was pushing Hamegg's car to it's limits. The city had just come into view. She pulled the car up short just outside the city. Something was going on. She got out of the car for a better look. She could see Astro. He was being pursued by several armed police cruisers. Something was off about him. He was flying erratically. The suns light caught his form. Cora gasped. She had conducted enough test runs to know what she had seen. But that was impossible. They only had the capacity to break down the simplest metals. Steel, iron, nickle, aluminum. Astro was a composite of the so-called smart metals. Smart metals weren't cast, they were precisely assembled molecule by molecule, it gave them incredible strength and flexibility and allowed for the integration of sensory receptors. Her bots couldn't cut though that. They weren't supposed to. Her anger was immense. _Someone is going to pay for this!_

But it was her design. Her design was killing Astro.

_This is all my fault. Oh, Astro, I'm so sorry_.

Cora looked at the great hunk of gleaming metal on her back seat. _Well Hamegg, I guess you were right. You'll be happy to know you get your wish after all._

It took everything she had to heft it to her shoulder height. She had to lean against the car to help stabilize it. Cora had never held anything like this in her whole life. She'd never fired a weapon of any kind. Her hand shook as she set the amperage, so thankful she had the wisdom to know what she was doing. She powered it on. It hummed loudly. A holoscreen came to life right before her eye displaying a telescopic image and cross-hairs. The rotary generator began at an incredible speed. She smelled Hot wire and ozone as it charged the capacitor. The generator then gave a sad hissy whine as it slowed to a stop. The holoscreen said CHARGED. _What did Hamegg say about the range on this thing? Damn. Why wasn't I paying attention?_

_Because I never thought it would ever come to this._

Cora waited until Astro came back into view. He had dived back into the city. When he reappeared his pursuit had gone. He must have given them the slip. As he passed the city's edge Cora took aim.

_Please. Please don't let me miss. Astro, be still!_

She pulled the trigger. The cannon discharged. It had little to no recoil. No boom, no flash. Nothing to see. It did just dispense a giant radio wave after all. She just had been expecting SOMETHING. What she got made her happy enough. It was a direct hit. Astro's rockets died. His forward speed and momentum sending him crashing far outside the city. The sunlight sparkled off the nanobots as they fell away, giving Astro all the appearance of a comet falling to earth.

* * *

Astro's system rebooted. His eyes slowly opened. He was sprawled on his stomach in the scrap yard wastelands outside the city. He had no memory how he got there. The sun was setting. How long had he been here? He didn't get up immediately. He was in a great amount of pain. Astro brought a shaking hand to his face. It was totally exposed. Parts that had never seen the sun since his creation were right in front of him. He clenched and unclenched his hand, it whurred and clicked as he did so. It sounded so loud to his ears. Do I always make this much noise underneath? He wasn't sure he wanted to see what the rest of him looked like, but he tried to sit up anyway. There were many protesting sounds that accompanied this action, including several snapping noises. A whole host of wire bundles hung out of his torso as he got to his knees. _That's not good._ As he tried to get his feet under him he realized his right foot wouldn't engage. He'd have to try to walk on his rocket exhaust nozzle. From the waist down the leg was unresponsive. When he finally managed to sit upright he saw why. The nanobots had eaten away at his skin and into the wires beneath. _Its bad, but I can fix this_. As he examined himself further he grew more and more downhearted. His whole right side was exposed all the way up to the base of his neck. As was his left hand. His harder skeletal framework was heavily pitted. That's as far as he got. He couldn't look at it anymore. He didn't even want to see how far they got into his torso. Astro put his head in his hands.

_I belong here. I belong here with the rest of this junk_.

Astro heard a great clatter and footsteps as someone approached. In his pain and fear he engaged and primed his cannons. His eyes banished the growing darkness. Cora brought her hand up to shield her face.

"Whoa, Astro, don't shoot me."

Astro sobbed with relief. He closed his eyes. His left cannon disengaged, the right one could not.

"Oh Astro," Cora said sadly as she got closer. "You're a mess... I'm so sorry." She got to her knees and embraced him.

Astro's voice shook. "I don't want you to see me like this." He was horrified to hear his voice had taken on a tinny quality.

"Oh shush." She rubbed his back and kissed his cheek. "We'll get you fixed up." She tried to lean back but he didn't let her go. "Come on Astro, let me get a better look at you."

He reluctantly released her.

Cora's brows furrowed as she took it all in. "Does it hurt?" She asked gently.

Astro just nodded.

"Yeah, It was a stupid question." Astro didn't register pain in exactly the same way humans did, but for the same reason humans do. To indicate damage. As far as Cora could tell, Astro still remembers what that pain is supposed to feel like, and it's just as real to him as it is to her. "Turn those lights back on for me." As he did Cora went straight for his torso. Astro winced. "Come on, I have to see what's going on in here," she said as she started following the errant wires to their origins, carefully as she could. She didn't want to hurt him further. "You gonna tell me what happened? How did you almost get gobbled up by our bots?"

Astro knew she was genuinely curious, but she also used this technique to keep him talking to keep his mind off what she was doing. "There was Rubeon-"

Cora gave a scoff that was an obvious I-told-you-so.

"-and this other guy. He wanted me dead. I don't know why. I've never even seen him before. I think he's like a ninja or something. He had a weapon. He turned our robots into a weapon." Astro's voice was full of disbelief and anger.

Cora didn't respond right away.

"Cora?"

As Cora sat up straight she shaded his eyes with one hand so she didn't blind herself. Astro turned them off. "I'm...I'm not sure how your still operating..." She said in amazement. "There's so much missing..."

"Thanks. That makes me feel SO much better."

"Sorry." She placed her hand on the back of his neck and stroked it thoughtfully as she continued her inspection. Astro's pain subsided a bit.

"Your not breathing," Cora said in dismay.

Astro hadn't noticed. It wasn't something he necessary had to do. Well, not for the same reason everyone else did. What it DID do was indicate that his cooling system was functioning properly. Astro's computer and hydraulic systems would overheat without it.

Cora was poking around again. "They ate though the pump, and your thermostat. We have to go. We have to fix that now before you burn out. Don't exert yourself. I don't want to have to pull your plug again."

"You say the sweetest things Cora." It was good-natured sarcasm.

Cora laughed. "I try." She pulled him up by his skeletal elbow and wrapped an arm around his cannon to help support his weight. "The car isn't far. Hamegg let me borrow his car! Can you believe it?"

Astro didn't have time for a response. A car was baring down on them right now. Headlights glaring, momentarily blinding them. It wasn't slowing. It was going to run right into them. Astro braced his one foot as he pushed Cora to the ground. He hoped if she could lie flat enough it would sail right over her if he didn't manage to stop it. Astro brought up both his arms. His cannon was still primed to fire, but he couldn't shoot, he wouldn't kill, and he couldn't risk shrapnel hitting Cora, not with it this close. His left hand sunk deep into the front bumper, his right snapped off at the shoulder and spun off out of his sight. Cora screamed and wrapped her hands behind her head beside him. Astro sunk into the ground as absorbed the impact. He was pushed backward about a foot. With a yell he slung the car off to his left where it skipped like a stone before coming to rest against a pile of scrap. Striker was out of the car before it even stopped moving. Astro managed to stand his ground for only a moment before he swayed and fell to his hands and knees. He was already starting to overheat. Striker strode up to him quickly, his plasma pistol in his hand.

"NO!" Cora launched herself at him.

Without missing a beat, Striker grabbed her by the neck and stopped her in mid-flight. She ineffectually tore at his hands.

Astro looked up at Striker, trying to get his body to respond. All his joints did was give a sickly clicking protest.

Striker stepped down on his neck and pushed him down to the ground. Cora was choking out sobs.

Striker shook his head in disbelief as he looked down at Astro. "Why are you so hard to kill?"

Cora watched in horror as Striker fired of two plasma bolts right into Astro. She saw pieces of him break off into the air. Sparks flew. She couldn't even scream.

"THAT"S ENOUGH!"

Zane had a hell of a time catching up with Striker. Zane didn't carry any weapons of his own. Luckily he happened to find one laying around.

Astro's arm cannon.

It only had one shot. Zane had the two detonation wires ready to touch together in one hand. His temper was boiling. His anger surprised and frightened him.

Striker pulled Cora in front of him, shielding himself from Zane. Cora felt his plasma pistol pushed into her neck. Cora finally managed to pull a breath. She was hysterical. "Kill him Zane!"

Zane and Striker looked at one another. He couldn't risk it. Zane took a step backwards. His mouth a grim line.

Striker smiled as he walked Cora backwards to his car. "No." Cora breathed. "NO!"

He opened the driver's side and threw her in the passenger side. Somehow his gun never left her skin.

He started the car and turned back toward the city.

Cora turned in her seat to watch Astro and Zane recede from view. No tears came. Her anger had burned them away. Her heart, however, was full of regret. She felt dead inside. This couldn't be real. This couldn't really be happening.

_I never told him.  
_

* * *

Zane was still staring in their direction long after they were gone, wondering if he'd done the right thing, and cursing himself for being too late. He failed his friends. Sadly, he looked down at Astro. There was no sign of life there.

It wasn't ready, but Zane wasn't going to let that stop him.

_I'm going to make it up to you both._

Time for plan B.

* * *

_What? You read it anyway? Don't hate me, I told you not to. Killing off the main character? Joss Whedon would be so proud of me. You guys know it's going to get a super happy ending right? You all have a good idea what's going to go down. He had to die!_


	8. Chapter 8

_Sorry for the long wait everybody, but real-life can be awfully pesty sometimes and it has this nasty habit of getting in the way when I'd rather be writing. All right, where were we? Ah, that's right, doom and gloom. Well enough of that. Who's ready for a robot resurrection? I know I am. I thought about making you wait for it and starting with Cora's storyline instead. But I'm not THAT evil. Who cares how she's doing anyway?_

* * *

Astro was having a very strange dream.

It was a system analysis. It looked like his system. Sort of. Only he couldn't analyze himself, not to this extent anyway, he was capable of smaller, more basic procedures. It would have saved him a lot of trouble if he could. Though he wouldn't have it run like this. Whole streams of bright green code seemed to scroll right behind his eyes where he had to look at them. He hated it, it was annoying.

Zone1.9 / temp 40.0 - complete- passed  
Zone2 / temp 40.4 - complete- passed  
Zone2.1 / temp 40.3 - complete- passed  
Zone2.2 / temp 40.2 -complete- passed

What the hell kind of font is that anyway? It hurts to look at it.

The sequences kept rolling past his vision at an incredible speed. He, of course, had no trouble keeping up with them. So far, everything seemed to make sense, except for the whole none-of-it-should-be-happening-at-all business. He was confused however, when some of them started to look decidedly unfamiliar.

Servos 1-13 - complete - status: operational  
Servos 14-26 - complete - status: operational

What? What is that? That's not part of my main operating system. That's all hardware. I don't have the ability to monitor all my hardware, do I? I didn't know I could do that. I can't do that. I've never been able to do that before. This is a really weird, stupid, BORING dream.

LLeft servo 1-12 - complete - status: fault  
LRight servo 1-12 -complete - status: fault  
Servo 4 -unresponsive  
Servo 12 -unresponsive  
Actuators disabled  
Power supply bypassed  
status: primary defense system offline  
See manual for details.

See manual for details? Is that a joke?

It went on like that for some time.

That's a lot of faults. I don't like this. This isn't any fun at all. I think I'll wake up now.

Tink ~tink~ tink

Well, now that's a little more interesting.

"Hey, uh..." It was Zane's voice, very close to his ear. He sounded so sad. "Are you sure it worked? He's still not moving."

Zane was tapping on him, trying to wake him up. How convenient.

Astro heard his father's voice. "Give it a minute." He sounded preoccupied with something. Maybe even a little concerned himself.

Astro was so happy to hear their voices. He couldn't recall as to why that would be.

Zane gave his shoulder a shake. "Hey Astro, come on, wake up."

Quick as lightning, Astro grabbed his wrist and opened his eyes. Zane let out a shout of surprise. Astro smiled at him.

"Got you." Then he frowned at the sound of his own voice.

Zane was grinning ear to ear, nodding his head. "I see you retained your horrible sense of humor." _Cora has rubbed off_ _on you to much,_ he thought. _That's too much like one of her stupid tricks. Never thought I'd be so happy to see one of those._

Astro released him as he sat up. Pulling with him a myriad array of cables and wires. If that wasn't bad enough, what he thought was a dream continued despite the fact that he was awake. Only now he was apparently launching what appeared to be an invasive virus scan. Green lines overlayed his vision as he looked at Zane. He rubbed his eyes, and blinked them many times. The lines disappeared, but he was still aware of them in the back of his mind. It made it very hard to think. There was something important he needed to remember. Something...happened? Something happened to him? Well, that was nothing new, but his memory wasn't usually this incredibly fuzzy. By design, he should have perfect recall. Zane was now looking concerned as Astro put his head in his hands, groaning, as he had to pull data connections off his arms to do so.

"Hey, you alright Astro?" Zane put a hand on his arm and looked off to Astro's left.

Then Astro heard Dr. Elefun speak up. _Oh thank goodness he's here_, Astro thought._  
_

"Tenma, stop the program. It's too aggressive. At least give him the option of whether or not he has to run it."

_Oh yes. Yes, please_.

"If I give him a choice he never will, and you know that."

_Oh, come on, dad. Really?_ Astro followed Zane's gaze to see his father and Dr. Elefun at a monitor station studying his vital signs.

"It's dominating his processes. How can he function like that? Where did you get this second-rate program anyway? You've been working too hard. The Tenma I know wouldn't have given this garbage a second glance. It needs to be more subtle. Pull it and let me retool it."

Tenma looked at Astro then. On seeing Astro up and running, his gaze softened. Astro did look rather dazed, his eyes squinted in what could only be a uncomfortable confusion. Elefun was right, it was completely inadequate. He was rushing things. He knew better than to try a shortcut, there had just been so much to do to get him operational. Tenma relented.

"Very well."

He initiated the uninstall, and Astro's mind immediately began to clear a bit. Unfortunately, a lot of his recent memory was still eluding him. Dr. Elefun left the monitoring station to briefly put a hand on his shoulder.

"How are you feeling my boy?" He offered his usual caring smile.

Much to Astro's dismay he noticed Elefun was walking with a crutch. His foot and ankle were all wrapped up. He was responsible for that, he knew. He did remember attacking the Ministry.

Cora, and now Elefun too?

Not that he ever wanted to hurt anybody, but why was it the only humans he managed to injure were the ones he cared about the most? He felt worse because he knew Dr. Elefun would never blame him for it. Dr. Elefun saw the realization in Astro's expression.

"Now don't you worry about that, Astro. It's nothing serious, just a sprain," he said in a very upbeat manner. "We're just glad your awake. You had us very worried."

Astro looked from Elefun to Zane and back again. "What happened?" He asked them both. He grimaced as he struggled to find the right description. "I feel very...strange." It was the best he could come up with in his disoriented state.

Zane and Elefun looked somberly at one another. Tenma had now included himself in the group. He began quietly detaching Astro from his assortment of cables. There was a heavy pause between all three.

Zane finally raised a hand and pointed.

"You didn't make it."

Astro didn't want to look. He was beginning to realize what was going on. He gripped his father's hand as he followed Zane's direction to see everything he had ever been laying on a table just across the room.

"Dad?" The fear in his voice was plain.

"There was nothing I could do, son," Tenma said sadly.

Astro pushed his father away from him. Then he stood and stumbled with legs he had assembled himself, but never before used. He had a longer stride now, it would take some getting used to. He was steadied by Zane as he lurched forward. Astro shrugged him off as he pushed his way forward. Any remaining cables came off with a series of audible pops. Elefun wrung his hands as he flashed an alarmed glance at Tenma. Tenma shook his head and put out a restraining hand. This was something he thought Astro needed to see. Elefun thought they were both being a bit cruel. They could have given him a FEW more minutes to adjust first. He didn't like it, but he kept his distance.

How very unsettling it is to look down and see yourself there. And he looked terrible. Astro leaned on the table with one hand and covered his eyes with the other, blocking out the depressing sight. It was every one of his gruesome nightmares to see his whole identity reduced to what was essentially a pile of scrap metal. Now, finally, it had come true at last.

He was dead... Again. _I really have to stop making a habit of this._

Events were slowly coming back to him. He remembered the fight at home, then shivered as he remembered the nanobots. _Then what? I... crashed?_

Zane walked up beside him. "It wasn't the exterior damage. That could have been repaired. You burned up. A lot of your brain was fried. You can't imagine how happy we were when Tenma found that your memory was salvageable." Then he said quietly, "You almost didn't make it."

Astro shook his head as he looked at his new hands, and then at Zane. "But this," he said confused, "I never finished it." He thought of the faults the analysis had picked out. "It STILL isn't finished."

"You would have had this," he indicated all of Astro, "done long ago if you hadn't kept dragging your feet on the project." Zane said rather roughly. Astro gave him a surprised look.

"You knew about this?"

"Well, yeah." Like that was obvious. "Tenma talked about it a lot. He worked on it,..um.._you_.. non-stop all week. With Elefun's help, of course. He wanted Tenma to wait till you were complete, but, well, he wouldn't, couldn't, wait." Zane whispered to him. "I don't think he slept at all."

_A week? I've been dead a whole week?_

Astro was overwhelmed. With as weird as he felt, It was a lot to take in. _I need to get a hold of myself_. _I always planned on taking this route eventually... didn't I?_ But Zane was right. He HAD put it off a lot.

_ Just not like this. Not this soon. I wasn't ready._ Literally. He took a deep breath and then sadly turned his back on his childhood. _I'm still not ready._ He took a minute to compose himself as he continued to lean against the table. Then he looked into the concerned faces of those around him. His curiosity was forcing him to press on. Astro crossed his arms and tried to take on a more calm appearance to assuage their fears and cover up his own emotional turmoil.

"So, what have I missed?" He knew a lot must have gone on in his absence.

Not one of them spoke.

"Well?" He put a commanding edge in his voice, and for that moment he sounded a lot like his dad, and he scared himself a bit.

Zane, of course, was the first to speak up.

"Oh, there is good news and bad news. You've missed out on a lot." Then he gave Astro that wicked smile that generally meant that all kinds of shit had hit the fan.

Astro put up a hand to stop him from going any further. "Please.. PLEASE, give me the good news first, Zane."

Always the showman, Zane let the moment drag out so as to build up the proper amount of anticipation. "Welllll, you don't have to worry about anyone shooting you down anymore. Not just because your technically a completely different robot, but because you were pardoned. Exonerated." His eyes gleamed excitedly as Astro's own widened in surprise. "Your dad managed to get a full confession out of Rubeon right there in front of the police and everything. I wish I had been there to see it." Astro gave his father a look of confused disbelief.

"It was a rational conversation between two professionals," was Tenma's calm response.

Elefun scoffed. A smile teasing his lips. "Sure it was."

Zane continued. "Apparently, Rubeon and Striker thought they were going to be seen as heroes for taking you down. Loved by the people, yadda, yadda. BUT, then your dad told Rubeon that we still had copies sequestered away, which we did,_ but_, THEN he went on to say that we had definitive PROOF that HE was the one who wrote it. Which was a absolute LIE!" Impossibly, Zane's smile got bigger as he proudly looked at Tenma, who was trying very hard not to look satisfied with himself. "Rubeon TOTALLY believed him and sang like a bird! He admitted not only to the virus, but to sharing unreleased Ministry prototypes with Striker as well. He said he was doing it all under duress of course. Striker being the big intimidating guy that he's apparently _known_ for being makes him a perfect scapegoat. Might not be the best decision Rubeon ever made though. I certainly wouldn't want Striker for an enemy, but I guess Rubeon's willing to take that chance. I guess he thinks he'll be safe locked up." Zane's excitement deflated suddenly. "I really wish that he would have been publicly associated with A.R.R.O." He sighed. "Though some suspect that he was, he's not going to come out and say it. Oh, well, I'll take what I can get."

Zane then grabbed Astro and shook him gleefully. "I wish you had been alive to see the city's reaction. Oh, boy. First, happy that your gone." Zane gesticulated a slashing motion. "Then, less then an hour later, the word gets out what really happened. The news networks eat their words...and then..."

Zane looked Astro in the eyes as he continued to hang off of him. Astro was enduring it all with an amused smile.

"Then... the city mourns. THEY MOURN! They were having memorials in your honor, Astro. It was a beautiful, yet-very sad thing." Though Zane didn't look sad at all. Neither did Astro. He was still a good guy, not a mindless weapon. They hadn't forgotten who he was after all.

Astro allowed himself a moment of internal celebration. He felt after all he'd been through, he deserved that much. He hugged Zane, then his father (who he found was _still_ taller than him) Then, Astro literally picked up Dr. Elefun before setting him very gently back to the floor. NOW he felt he could endure anything.

Still smiling, Astro finally inquired. "So what's the bad news?"

All three once again said nothing. They looked to one another in a debate as to who would be the one to tell him. Astro's smile immediately dropped into an impatient scowl. He knew he wasn't going to like this, and it was sweet that everyone wanted to spare his feelings, but sometimes he would just like a straight answer for once.

Elefun was the first to look up at him. "I think...we should have given you the bad news first."

The fact that this admission came from Elefun gave him a chill. Astro's mind shot right to the friend that was missing. Someone who should have been here, but was not. Someone who was just as important to him as those assembled before him. He backed up a step.

"Where's Cora?" His voice was full of suspicion and panic.

Zane tried to make himself small. "We don't.. really.. know."

"WHAT?!"

Zane's gaze narrowed at Astro. _He doesn't remember everything that happened. Good for him. No one should have to remember that._ "Striker ran off with her," he said simply. "We were hoping he would just drop her off at the police station, thinking he'd come out looking like an exemplary citizen, but he kept her long enough to get wind that Rubeon squawked and tried to pin the blame on him. I'm guessing he must have friends in the police department and they tipped him off. He's disappeared completely."

Astro felt his world crashing down again. His new legs began to shake and he felt the need to sit before he fell. _That monster has Cora? He's had her for a week? Is she even still alive?_

"Now, now, she's probably just being held hostage somewhere," Zane said quickly. "We're all going to get a turn apparently," he joked.

_Not funny._ Astro shook his head at him. No wonder Cora hits him so much. "But what do we do?" he asked desperately.

Zane shrugged. "I got a plan. Duh."

_Of course he does. He wouldn't be so calm otherwise._

"But I need your help to implement it. First you need some street clothes, your not going out into the city half naked like that."

Astro was tugging on the itchy collar of his T-shirt as he and Zane left the Ministry. It was one of the few casual clothes his father owned. Astro had seen him wear it, like, once. His father and Dr. Elefun had stayed behind to work on that awful program that Astro was determined to never have installed again, no matter how useful and improved it may prove to be. That's just the kind of thing he needs, a program that constantly reminds him how inhuman he is.

Astro felt exposed once the Ministry doors slid shut behind him. He was surprised to see it was late afternoon, an absolutely beautiful day. And here he was in the city, strolling down the sidewalk after Zane. The same city that just days before had wanted him dead, and thought he still was. He was a new robot. No one recognized him as such, he looked like just an average guy, walking down the street. An average guy doing average errands on an average day. He wondered how much fun he could have with this normalcy before he'd have to come to the rescue again and everyone found out he was still very much alive.

It was a short walk to Zane's repair shop. Astro was glad to see the new repaired window looked much better than the old one. As they walked in Zane was instantly set upon by his young staff that ran the shop during his frequent and often long absences. They each left as Zane patently answered all their questions until only young adult remained. Curtis Mays, the oldest at eighteen, was the floor manager when Zane was away. He was tall for his age with carefully groomed red hair and a very professional demeanor. He didn't give Astro a second glance as he handed Zane a Vboard with the latest list of schedule and inventory timetables. "There are three documents at the bottom that need your signature," he said crisply as Zane scrolled though them. Zane glanced back at him. "You already read through them?" Curtis nodded. "Very good. And, uh, what about that other thing I asked you about..."

Curtis produced a second board and handed it to him with a wink. "It's been very busy."

"Has it? Very, very good." Zane started to walk past him. "If that will be all, I'll be in my office." Zane indicated for Astro to follow.

Curtis called after him. "Um, yeah, about that boss, there is already a couple of people in there waiting for you."

Zane stopped mid-stride to turn and look at him. "Who?"

Curtis had a guilty look. "I think you know. I couldn't get them to leave, they've been here everyday."

_Great._ Zane ran a hand over his face. "That I can believe." _And they're probably mad as blazes_.

"Ugg." That's all Zane said before he turned and walked away.

Widget and Sludge were having a whispered discussion behind his desk as Zane and Astro walked into the office. They used real names now, Bridget and Cody, but within _this_ circle of friends those names were never used. They both looked at Zane with simultaneous looks of unbridled fury.

"AND just WHERE have you been?" said Widget.

"We've been trying to get a hold of you for over a week!" said Sludge.

"You don't answer your phone-"

"You're never here at the shop-"

"WE know that YOU know what's been going on!"

Zane dropped into a chair and slouched into it as he propped his feet up on the front of the desk. He let their outraged questions roll over him as he studied one of the Vboards. Apparently willing to wait for them to stop before responding. Astro was familiar with their argumentative behaviorisms and he leaned against the wall smiling fondly. _I've never really appreciated these kinds of moments. _

The twins knew how this worked too. After their initial explosion, they both clammed up and glared at Zane. Widget gave Astro a glance. Then she did a double take.

She had a suspicion.

Astro stifled a laugh.

Zane finally looked up at them. "I don't tell you anything because I don't want you two involved. Your too young for this sort of thing. We'll have plenty of trouble for you to get into AFTER you graduate high school. I promise."

Sludge puffed his chest out. Cora and Zane often left them out of things because they were still in school. They didn't like being treated like kids, and they didn't like the gulf that it put between them. All that would change in another year or so when they graduated themselves. It still hurt. With all the horrible recent events, the loss of one friend and the disappearance of the other, and Zane had the gall to try to leave them out of it?

Widget's anger melted away at his words and she became extremely upset. Her lip trembled a bit. "Can you please at least tell us what happened to Cora? We tried to get a hold of her too, but she doesn't answer her phone and her parents haven't seen or heard from her either. She's not in trouble anymore right? Why is she still missing? Please Zane, we're really worried. Don't leave us in the dark."

That worked. He wasn't about to let her start crying. Zane sighed loudly. "I don't know, I really don't. That's what we are going to find out."

"We?" Widget was looking at the dark-haired stranger leaning against the wall. Sludge was now looking at Astro too.

Zane went back to studying the Vboard and pointed a thumb over his shoulder.

"Yes. We. Me and Astro."

"I KNEW IT!" Widget screamed. She ran around the desk to embrace him, Sludge didn't even walk around, he climbed over it, knocking Zane's feet to the floor.

"Hey!" Zane exclaimed, covering his head with the Vboard as a hundred and thirty pounds of happy teenager practically jumped right over him.

They couldn't bowl Astro over, but they gave it their best try. It was a fabulous collision.

"We thought you were dead! It was awful!"

"Well, I was-"

"OH, you look so different!"

"It's still the same design-"

"Wait until Cora sees you."

Astro tried to clear the sudden lump in his throat. That thought made him feel incredibly nervous.

Zane raised his voice. "If you two are done hassling Astro, we would like to get to work finding Cora so she CAN see him. I want you both to go home NOW."

They looked at him angrily. "We want to help," they said in unison, still clinging to Astro.

Zane dropped the board on the desk as he got up. "I thought I made myself clear," he said firmly. Then he surprised them all when he walked over and pulled them all together. When he let them go, his voice was more gentle than any of them had ever heard from him. He nodded at both Widget and Sludge. "Please. Let us handle this. I'm already dead if I let anything happen to Astro." Astro raised a brow at that. "The best help you could provide is going home where I don't have to worry about you too."

The twins looked at one another. They were in agreement. There was no way Zane would be acting this weird unless he himself felt in over his head. There was probably very little they could do but get in the way.

"You will be careful?" asked Sludge.

"Yes."

"AND, you will give us the whole story?" asked Widget.

"Yes, as soon as we find Cora I'll tell you everything you need to know."

"Zane..." Astro warned.

"Fine. No more secrets. I'll tell you all of it. Just go away," he huffed.

They both stuck their tongues out at Zane, then they smiled at Astro. They gave each of his hands a squeeze as they left. And then they were gone.

"You were a little hard on them, don't you think?"

"I have to be, Astro." Zane closed the office door. "I'm starting to get into some really illegal stuff. If I get caught, I can't have them around."

"Oh.. Zane...No... What are you doing?"

"That's just it," he said pensively, quietly, looking at nothing. "I'm afraid I don't know what I'm doing." Astro had never heard Zane say such a thing before. He was always so confidently goofy.

"You seem to have been doing well so far. You sure got me out of a lot of trouble." It was the most encouraging thing he could think to say. _I would rather you didn't do anything illegal though._

"I'm not _that_ old, Astro, or wise. I'm not half as confident as I seem to be. I haven't been at this very long, just a couple of years. Most of it was all trial and error. I've been making a lot of it up as I go along." Zane all at once looked very tired. The weight of it all was bearing him down.

Astro dared to question. "Why Zane? Why did you get involved at all? Why take charge of this?"

Zane gave him a sad grin. He took a deep breath. "I've never had the book smarts like you or Cora do. I can get things done, I just can't prove that I can on paper. I didn't grow up in the city. You remember how hard it was for me. Everyone else in my class was so far ahead. I barely graduated. I only did because of you. You and Cora both helped me out. You were always standing up for me. I never had a friend like that. And your _always_ like that Astro. You're always doing for others." He paused. "And... and that inspired me to do something for you."

Astro was speechless. He just stood there slack-jawed. Zane didn't give him a moment to recover. In true Zane fashion, he was off of one emotion and on to the next.

"Now. Back to business. As I was saying, what I'm TRYING to do is unify all of my four hundred members at once. Now keep in mind that I've never had to do this before. Something I HOPED I'd never have to do. Before now, I would just set up a couple of contacts here and there, a small group of people I could trust. Word of mouth sort of stuff, so we stay quiet and on the down low. After your death and Rubeon's wonderful confession, I gave the call for all of our members to contact me directly if any information on Striker's whereabouts could be found. Well, the robot community turned out to be more enthusiastic than I ever imagined. Robots connected to secure government systems started sending me information. They are hacking into everything. Just about every transaction on every person in the city. Really sensitive stuff. Most of it is absolute rubbish I can't use, but they mean well. And I can't tell them to stop because they might actually FIND something. Just look at this." Zane picked the Vboard off the desk and handed it to Astro. There were thousands of messages. "They come in like this everyday. I spend all night going through them and I've hardly made a scratch. They just keep piling up. Your the only robot I trust to do this Astro."

Finally, something to do. It wasn't the action he was looking for, but he'd take it. First he rooted the Vboard, then he wrote a small program to help narrow his search, he implemented it, and logged a few key words to narrow them even further. He quickly read any that popped up then sent inquiries back to the robots that had sent them. Their replies were immediate, and soon Astro was granted unrestricted access to poke about those networks without having to skirt around the security programs. Yes, it was illegal. Yes, Astro felt bad about it. But Cora was on the line. Zane was watching Astro closely as his fingers flew across the board so fast they seemed to blur.

"You always were way better at that hacker crap than me."

"I DO have a bit of an advantage," he said distractedly. He sighed. "Well, now every robot in the city knows I'm up and running." He was quite sad about it. He would have liked to keep that to himself a little longer. Robot talk travels fast.

"... Ok, I think I found him."

"Wait. What? Already?" Zane didn't believe it. He'd been at this for days, and Astro had only had the board a few minutes. _Well, that's what I brought him for._

"I've got several bank loan statements and construction permits for two different facilities. One is the advertised factory address here in the city... and the other was sold off two years ago. Hm. There was however an interesting delivery order for twenty cargo trucks. Purchased by an alias Striker used once before on a police report. Apparently he was a bad boy from the start. The address is far outside the city limits."

Zane looked at the board as he leaned over Astro's elbow. The address was really just a set of geographic coordinates. "Well I wouldn't expect him to be hiding in the city anyway. He must have had it built by the locals."

Astro dropped the board in the chair, and Zane had to back up as Astro suddenly turned to go. "Come on."

Zane had stumbled with Astro's sudden course of action, and he grabbed Astro's arm to prevent him from leaving. "What? Now? Right now? Shouldn't we have a plan or something?" He knew he really wasn't one to talk after admitting how much of his plans were made on-the-fly. "We could call in the police?" he suggested desperately.

"That's not how I'm doing this. If she's a hostage, I'm getting her out first. THEN we can call them."

"Hey, I really just had you on loan, Astro. I promised Tenma we wouldn't do anything crazy!" Astro was now dragging him out of his office. Zane couldn't even stop a small Astro, he didn't know why he thought he could stop a larger one. "Last time you tangled with this guy you DIED, remember? OK, maybe you don't, but I do! It was gruesome. I don't want to see that happen again!"

Astro stopped and looked at him fiercely. "Fine. Then you can stay here. I'll go alone."

"No! I don't want you doing that either! That's even worse!"

Astro leaned his weight on one leg and slooowly lifted the arm that Zane clung to. Astro admired his tenacity, because Zane refused to let go, even after Astro had lifted him off the floor. Astro smiled.

"So does that mean your going with me?"

Zane closed his eyes tight in obvious frustration. _Tenma is going to kill me! _"Yes! I'll go with you!" he snarled. "Just don't go flying off! We'll take my car!"

* * *

_Whoa! Adult Astro?! Can I do that? Isn't that some kind of Astro Boy heresy? Didn't really give a good description of him either did I? That's for Cora's point-of-view to describe. Really hope to get the next chapter out on time so Astro isn't 'dead for a week' again._


	9. Chapter 9

_Went to see Jurassic Park in IMAX 3D today. I love that movie. Though seeing it now as an adult, I picked out a lot of things that didn't make sense that you just don't think about when your a kid. Why is there a GIANT drop on the inside of the Tyrannosaurus paddock? OK, SORRY, this is all very off topic, story time starts now, hold on to your butts._

* * *

"That can't be it," Zane said as peered through the binoculars.

"It is. It's the only thing for miles. What did you expect?" Astro said standing next to him. They were both peeking over a tall rocky outcropping a good distance away.

"Something a little bigger. It's a garage door."

There was a single small gravel road for the benefit of vehicles that were earthbound and the surrounding scrub had been cut low for the ones that were not. They could find no other entrances. It was very nondescript. There were no signs or placards. And it was quiet. There was no activity whatsoever.

"It's a loading dock. A docking door set into the mountain, hello? The rest of it is in there."

"What? Like a secret lair? That has cheesy movie super-villain written all over it. I don't like this at all. This guy just gets creeper and creeper. Please tell me your not going to run in there, guns blazing."

"Can't. They don't work."

"They don't ...what?" Zane sputtered. THAT'S why Tenma had been so adamant about keeping a tight leash on Astro, like that's possible. "Why would Tenma start you up like that? You're a trouble magnet."

"It's not a necessary system."

"It is for YOU."

Astro had his own idea as to why. He was pretty sure his father wanted that monitoring program in place before he was equipped with any weaponry. His father was taking steps to make sure nothing like this could ever happen again. Astro wondered if his father had really planned on starting him up, or if he had just wanted to test the program.

"So what do we want to do?" Astro looked up at the sky, it was starting to get dark.

"Do? DO? I'd like us to walk back to the car so I can take your butt back to the city. Cause this is such a _great_ idea." Zane had argued during the entire car ride, not that it did him any good.

"I'm not going to do that, so give it up, I won't change my mind. This rescue mission is happening with or without you. So could you drop the sarcasm and be serious for like, two minutes?"

"Of course I can. I can be _seriously_ sure this is a suicide mission. Usually I love a crazy idea, but we're just two guys."

"I'm a robot. Doesn't that count for anything?"

Zane scoffed, unimpressed. "You're a stubborn, unfinished robot who never listens."

_That's not fair, I listen ...Sometimes...,_ Astro thought. "Hey, I'm not pointing out YOUR flaws." Astro planted his hands on his hips. "Of which there are many."

Zane went back to studying the mountain exterior, grumbling. "Well, you seemed awfully wobbly earlier, I'm not sure you're ready for this. Maybe you're missing some gyroscopes or something too."

"There's nothing wrong with my gyroscopes, I know because I was forced to look at the assessment," Astro snapped. "Give me a break... I had just been activated for the very first time EVER, found out I was dead, and learned my girlfriend had been kidnapped. How do you think YOU would feel?"

This gave Zane a start, and he almost dropped his binoculars. Astro now had his full attention. "Girlfriend? Really? Finally?" Like it was the only thing he'd taken from Astro's rant. There had been so much back and forth between those two over the years that Zane was rarely sure what was really going on. "You're not messing with me? It's official?"

Astro was suddenly bashful. "I think so."

"As-tro's-got-a-girlll-friend," Zane sang softly. So soft it would have been under anyone else's hearing range, but not Astro's. Zane had been wanting to say that for a very long time.

Astro bristled with embarrassed outrage. "Zane...," he rumbled through clenched teeth, as he shook a finger at him. "And I thought I was the one that needed to grow up."

"Dude, settle down. I'm teasing," Zane smiled at him, immune to Astro's anger. "I've always wanted the two of you together. I'm not usually into that kind of stuff, but it's a love story even I can appreciate. You belong together, and I'm truly happy for you." Sentimental words didn't normally come out of Zane, though it seemed to be happening a lot lately. He must have realized it too, because then, without warning, he slapped the back of Astro's head.

"What the _hell_ were you both waiting for anyway?" He groused. "I can't believe it took you so long." _Especially with all the pushing I was doing._

Astro had to give him a small smile as he rubbed his head. He'd always known he had Zane's approval, but that was different than knowing that Zane had always really wanted it for him, and had apparently been anticipating it for some time. Astro found himself getting a little choked up the more he thought about it.

"Oh, hey, what are you- Ok," Zane said, surprised, as Astro hugged him. There wasn't anything Zane could do to stop him. "Man...," Zane complained as he awkwardly patted his back. He'd never been very good at the bro-hug. It was weird earlier, and it was weird now. It was always Cora's job to hug Astro. _This is what I get for saying something nice._

"You are a..very.. affectionate .. fellow, Astro." _We really need to get her soon or I'm going to keep being subjected to this._ "Um, hey, Astro? I really feel I've reached my love quota. I've given and received enough hugs for one day." _Hint. Hint._

Astro smiled at his obvious discomfiture and gave a half shrug as he spoke into Zane's shoulder. "I can't help it. It's all this stress."

_Uh huh_, Zane thought. _Dieing didn't change you one bit, you big sap. Damn, you had us all so scared._

"Alright, get off me." Zane said as he pushed him away, before he could get emotional himself. "I might not agree with this stupid venture, but I'm not going to fight you anymore about it. Maybe if we're sneaky-like, we can pull this off. Come on, lover-boy, I think Cora's waited long enough. I hope you've thought of something. Something reasonable," he quickly added. "Cause I haven't."

Astro gave Zane a smirk. "Yes. I did."

"I'm going to dig."

* * *

Cora was a miserable mess. Just the mess Zane predicted she would turn into. She had managed to put on a strong front for a couple of hours, but as soon as Striker left her alone, she broke down into a wretched, sobbing heap on the floor.

_I hate that man!_

Cora didn't even know his name. She just knew him as the guy who shot Astro. She was already trying to concoct some manner of revenge. Cora was pretty vindictive that way.

He wouldn't even give her the satisfaction of a reaction as she had hissed and spat at him as they drove back to the city. She shouted about what he did to Astro, his corrupting of her nanobots and the illegality of it, and she called him every horrible name she could think of. It was madness to push him like this she knew, he was obviously a man capable of great violence. But he never got angry, he didn't tell her to shut up, he wouldn't acknowledge her at all, he just drove the car. And that incensed her to no end. He even eventually put his weapon away. To him, she was just noisy cargo. Her already sore throat was raw when she finally fell silent. She was mentally exhausted and numb.

They had just entered the city when Striker's phone rang. The sudden sound made Cora jump. For a second she thought about using the distraction to do SOMETHING, but she didn't. Even in her manic state, she knew this wasn't a situation she could win.

Striker literally did nothing more than grunt into his phone once, then he put it away and turned the car away from the city.

Cora studied him. He looked rather disappointed in whatever he'd been told. _Good,_ Cora thought with satisfaction. _I hope the news is awful._ Striker finally looked at her then. "Phone," he commanded, as he held out his hand. She didn't want to give it up. It was full of messages from just about everyone she knew. After Astro's attack, her phone had been absolutely bombarded. She had thought it best to leave them all unanswered. She didn't want anyone to get involved that didn't need to be, and she sure as hell didn't want to talk to her parents. She could imagine all the things THEY would have to say. She really regretted that decision now.

Cora glared at him as she handed her phone over, which he promptly threw out the window.

When they reached their destination she had been marched down flights of stairs and through dark corridors. It was all concrete walls and floors. It felt abandoned. Cora couldn't say what the place was once used for, except that it was _old, _with a few modern modifications here and there. If Striker had any associates, she never saw them. It _was_ however _infested_ with robots, which Cora would have thought was pretty hypocritical only that _these_ robots were of a strangely ancient and primitive design, yet they looked newly built. They were tall, semi-bipedal, with long ape-like arms and a thick extendable frame-work neck that terminated into a small three-eyed head. The whole design consisted of hard blocky lines, exposed hydraulics, and a frighting amount of weaponry. They seemed to stand at attention as Striker marched her by. They were obviously sentinels of some sort, watchdogs. He finally shoved and locked her into large room, which she proudly broke out of immediately, only to be surrounded by the sentinel bots until Striker came to lock her up again. He finally found her a room with a big enough lock and a thick steel door. She spent a good amount of time looking for something to break out with, but all she could find was an old axe in a utility closet. That wasn't going to work. Without an escape to preoccupy her, she finally fell apart. The whole scene kept replaying in her mind. She kept wondering what she could have done differently. She had been so concerned with Astro that she hadn't bothered to ask him about ALL that had happened to him. She thought there would be time for that later, after he was out of danger of overheating. Zane had looked an absolute mess, and she had no idea what had become of Tenma. _I'm a horrible person,_ she thought. _They should have been the first thing I asked about. I guess I just assumed they could take care of themselves.  
_

Now Astro was gone. Cora held on to the slim hope that he was not. Maybe he could be repaired. Maybe. Cora knew she was deluding herself. She knew the extent of the damage he had taken, but that hope was the only thing she had to hold onto.

* * *

"I have to say," Astro grunted, "this was a lot easier to do when I was smaller."

Zane stood far enough behind him that he didn't get pelted with dirt. Having hundreds of tons of earth over his head was making him nervous. "Then I'm not going to ask you to go faster," he said smartly.

Astro laughed. "I don't suppose YOU want to do this?"

"And deprive you of the pleasure? I wouldn't dare."

_I DO enjoy doing this. I'm coming Cora. _

Astro was finally rewarded as he hit concrete. He stopped to show Zane. "HAH! There. Was that fast enough for you?" He was feeling quite satisfied until a soft rumble caught his sensitive ears.

"Uh, Astro?" Zane could feel the vibration through his old sneakers.

The dim light that reached them from the tunnel entrance suddenly shut out, leaving Astro the only source of light. The rumble grew louder and the tunnel started to collapse in succession. The dirt poured in like a rain approaching. The sound had turned into a roar as Astro grabbed Zane. He rammed his shoulder into the concrete as hard as he could. He dropped Zane as he busted his way to the other side. Zane went sliding on his back across a polished concrete floor. Dirt and dust came spilling through the hole, creating an obstructing cloud. The roar finally came to a stop with a _whump_. When it settled there was a door-sized wall of dirt and cinder where they had been only a moment before.

_That was too close. I thought it was stable. I shouldn't have rushed it. I put Zane in danger. _

Astro crouched over Zane where he was dramatically hyperventilating as he lay prone on his back. "Um, sorry about that. We...Uh.. probably shouldn't try that again."

Zane sat up quickly. He grabbed the front of Astro's shirt and shook him. "YOU THINK?"

Astro helped him to his feet, where he stood bent with his hands on his knees, catching his breath.

Astro looked past him into the poorly lit hall beyond and then almost promptly knocked Zane over again as he grabbed his elbow and dragged him into a dark recess.

"What is it now?" Zane said as Astro shushed him.

A rhythmic, mechanical clanking could be heard approaching. Zane and Astro sunk deeper into the recess as four groups of three lights bobbed up and down on long collapsible necks. The lights swiveled back and forth as their owners looked from side to side. As they passed them by and began examining the damaged wall, Astro and Zane slipped out and quickly walked the way the robots had come, hoping they wouldn't bump into any more. When they felt they had slipped away a good distance into the shadows they ran down two flights of stairs just to be sure.

"What crypt did those things crawl out of?" Zane whispered.

"I don't know, I've only ever seen anything like that in history textbooks. Maybe I could try talking to them, they might know where we can find Cora."

"They didn't look very friendly, Astro."

"No, that they didn't." Astro sighed. "Ok, floor by floor then." _This could take forever._

Zane nudged his arm. "Hey, how about that?" as he smiled at him and pointed, "That looks promising."

Further down the corridor was a heavy steel door. Not only was it padlocked, but there was also a thick door security bar keeping it firmly shut. Zane folded his arms and nodded. "Yup. That's about what you'd need to keep Cora contained."

Zane unsecured the bar and Astro pulled off the padlock with a loud snap. Zane was already turning the knob and opening the door.

"Zane, I wouldn't...," Astro began.

Zane ducked as an axe came right at his face. Cora adjusted the swing at the last moment and buried the blade in the door jam.

Zane wasn't sure how many more of these close calls he could handle. Worse, Cora leapt on him and enveloped him in a rib-shattering hug of ecstatic joy. Another hug for Zane. Yay. It was a good thing he was just as genuinely glad to see her too, or he would have complained about it. He smiled over her shoulder at Astro, who was looking much more relaxed now that he could see she was unharmed, and that they were all finally reunited.

Cora clung to Zane. She had been pent up for too long. She was a coiled spring that was now released and she hit Zane with a flurry of questions so fast he didn't know how to respond.

"How did you find me? How did you get in here? How did you get past the robots? What's been going on outside in the city?"

"Uh..." Zane didn't know where to start.

Then Cora released him enough to look at him. She paused before speaking. Her eyes were sorrowful. "What happened to Astro?" she said quietly. "Could he be repaired?" She dreaded the answer.

Zane shook his head. "No."

Cora buried her head in his neck and started sobbing.

Astro looked at Zane incredulously. _What did you tell her that for?!_

Zane gesticulated best he could, since he couldn't shrug like he wanted to. He raised his brows. _What? It was the truth! She didn't ask the right question._ Then his eyes gleamed.

_Your going to let me tell her then? Oh, let me tell her!_

Astro couldn't believe him. He shook his head no, then pointed to himself. _It's my place to do that._

_OH PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE!_ Zane's eyes begged as placed his palms together around Cora's back.

_NO._

Cora finally realized that her and Zane weren't alone and that something else was going on between them. She was a bit miffed and embarrassed as she pushed Zane away and turned to see a complete stranger standing there. Cora composed herself immediately as she brought her tough attitude to the fore. Astro thought it was adorable. Zane was smiling madly behind her, practically jumping up and down.

Cora leaned back as she spoke to Zane and nodded at Astro.

"So who's this guy?"

Astro opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. He didn't until that moment realize what a scary moment this was going to be. He had been nervous about it sure, but now he found he was petrified. _What if I'm TOO different?_

Zane used this to his advantage and beat him to the punch.

"Oh him?" Zane said casually,

"That's Astro."

_YES! IN YOUR FACE!_ Zane pointed at him and gave a small leap.

Cora fell back a step like she had been dealt a physical blow. She backed up into Zane and spoke over her shoulder, never taking her eyes off Astro.

"That's not funny Zane."

Zane wrapped his hands around her shoulders and spoke directly into her ear. His voice deadly serious.

"I'm not joking."

* * *

_And I'm just going to keep making you wait for it, Mwwah hah hah! No, seriously, in the beginning this story was only supposed to be six short chapters long, but then it turned into a monster. You're all so patent, and I love you for that, I really do. _


	10. Chapter 10

This was exactly what Astro had been afraid of.

"No," was all Cora said as she shook her head side to side. Her eyes wide with fright and disbelief.

"Yes," said Zane behind her.

"But you said..." She felt breathless and it came out as a whisper.

"I said he couldn't be repaired, I didn't say he wasn't functioning... Albeit a bit differently."

At first glance all Cora had seen was an ordinary guy she could pass by on the street and not think twice about. He was of an average height, with a slim build that didn't quite fill out his dirty gray T-shirt. It was paired with equally ruined black slacks that matched his hair in both hue and soil content. But now that Cora was looking for it, she could see that all the similarities were there. His proportions were familiar, if elongated, and his stance was the same. She felt guilty that she hadn't noticed it right away.

But what really did it was when she looked into the warm brown eyes that she would recognize absolutely anywhere. THAT made Cora's breath catch.

Cora crept forward a few steps, very tentatively, like she might bolt if Astro made any sudden moves. Astro kept very still. He was very disheartened to see how much fear he instilled in her.

_It's just me Cora. You know me. Please don't freak out._

Cora came within arms length and then stopped, frozen, as she continued to look at him, her eyes darting back and forth. Her mind was desperately trying to grasp why what she saw within was not what she saw without. _If he couldn't be repaired...if my little Astro is dead...then who are you..._

"Astro?" Her voice was a mixture of confusion and hope.

"Hi Cora." He gave her a shy smile.

Cora flinched when he spoke. He still sounded like Astro, but the octave she was used to hearing had slid down the scale. His voice was deeper, richer.

Cora was torn between running to him and running away. This was all a little bit more than she could take. Cora made a small noise in the back of her throat-

and then she fainted.

Astro caught her as she fell and shot Zane a look of alarm.

Zane seemed to think this was all incredibly amusing. "Whoa, way to go Astro, I wish I had that effect on women. That actually went WAY better than anything I was expecting. I didn't even know she could do that!"

Astro looked at her as he cradled her in his arms, his face full of despair.

Zane gave a shrug. He obviously thought Astro had been a little naive. "Well, How did YOU think she was going to take it?"

"I don't know...not like this."

"She's just a bit rattled. Give her time. She'll warm up to you."

Astro started berating himself. _What was I thinking? 'Hi Cora?' I couldn't have started with an explanation? Some genius I am._ He was just so nervous, he felt like he was talking to Cora for the very first time. Which, technically, he kind of was.

Zane was looking up one end of the corridor and down the other. He impatiently tapped his foot. "Hey. We probably shouldn't still be dawdling in this hallway. Let's get inside." He gestured to the room they just freed Cora from.

Astro couldn't hear any imminent patrols, but that could change at any moment.

Astro picked her up, and carried her into the room. Zane followed, and he gave a grunt as he dodged the axe handle where it was still lodged in place. He almost ran right into it. He closed the door behind him and turned to see Astro still holding Cora in his arms. She was starting to come around.

"Well, put her down! Are you mad?" Zane whispered desperately. "She's going to wake up swinging! What do you think she'll do if you scare the snot out of her twice?"

Astro didn't want to put her down. Cora had always seemed so big to him before. Now she was so small in his arms. So fragile. It was in Astro's nature to protect. It was a large part of who he was and, occasionally, it manifested as a possessiveness. And now that he held her, he was so afraid he'd never get to again. What if she never accepted him?

Zane saw the conflict in his eyes. "Hey. Astro, don't worry about it. She's crazy about you, man."

The room was full of chairs and tables to choose from. But most of them were broken and in disarray. They were in what appeared to be a break room or associate lounge of sorts. It looked as if it hadn't been used in a decade. The cafeteria sported a large vinyl sofa, and this is where Astro reluctantly put Cora down.

Zane looked around with approval. "Hmm. Not a bad place to be locked up, if I do say so." He spared a glance at the vending machines in the corner. The contents had spilled out on the floor. Cora had obviously taken out her frustrations on the rooms breakables. Zane bent over Cora and shooed Astro away. "Don't hover. Move over there." He gave him a shove when Astro didn't move fast enough. Cora was already blinking in confusion and trying to sit up.

"Heeeeyy, Cora." Zane said sweetly.

Cora sat glaring at him through her disheveled hair, with her fists clenched but firmly pressed into the vinyl for support, holstered, but still ready if she wanted to use them. She looked at Zane like he was an idiot. Then she had to stifle a yelp when she saw Astro standing off to the side. Hugging his arms to himself like he didn't know what to do with them. _Huh_, she thought. _So that wasn't a dream after all_. She couldn't take her eyes off him. Her gaze was one of fascination and suspicion that made Astro very uncomfortable.

Zane provided a distraction. He snapped his fingers, trying to break her gaze.

"Cora." She didn't respond right away.

_Snap. Snap._

"CORA."

"What!" She snarled as she finally looked at him.

"Where's Striker?"

Cora blinked. Now he had her attention. _So that's his name?_ "I don't know. I haven't seen him since he locked me in here."

"So we don't have to worry about him dropping in?"

Cora stood up. "No. I think he forgot all about me," she growled. "He didn't seem very concerned about me at all. He has hundreds of robots crawling all over the place."

"Yeah, we saw those."

At the mention of 'we' her gaze again went to Astro, but she continued to speak to Zane. "I haven't seen anyone else."

"So if we can sneak pass the robots..."

"We'll be ok, yes. IF we can. They aren't very smart, but they seem to have a hive mind. If one sees you, they all know where you are."

"So we won't be seen," Zane said with a toothy smile.

"It won't be that easy. I've tried. There's too many of them."

Astro was thinking aloud. "Hive minds usually have a main control center. If we could find that, we could shut them down."

Cora backed away from him as he spoke.

This earned her a very hurt look from Astro.

_Oh, for goodness sakes_, Zane thought. _We can't work together like this._

Zane grabbed Cora's elbow. Surprised, she flinched at his touch. "Can I speak to you a minute Cora?" He started walking her to an adjoining room, but stopped to look pointedly at Astro. "In private?"

Astro nodded.

Zane narrowed his eyes at him. "You promise?"

Whether you could call it a quality or a weakness, when Astro makes a promise, he keeps it. No matter what. The trick is binding him to one.

Astro really wanted to listen in too.

"I Promise," he said submissively, hanging his head a bit.

Zane dragged her away, and he drilled into her as soon as they were out of his sight.

"You need to give him a chance Cora."

"I'm not sure _who_ that is."

"Aww, jeez, Cora. Stop being stupid. That's Astro out there, I saw him activated myself. You're lucky you have him at all."

"What happened to OUR Astro? Where did that one come from?"

Zane sighed. "You remember the upgrade Astro was talking about? The one he wouldn't let you work on?"

"Upgrade? UPGRADE? That's not an upgrade! That's a completely different robot, Zane!"

Zane motioned for her to lower her voice. "Yes, but our Astro is in that robot. It wasn't his choice at all. It was supposed to be his choice. Listen, Tenma and Elefun couldn't repair him. He had nowhere else to go. As it was we almost lost him during the transfer. The data started corrupting. Tenma had to cut some out to keep it from corrupting everything behind it."

Cora felt lightheaded at the thought of what could have happened. These kind of transfers were indeed, extremely risky. The percentile for success was very low. If the two best minds in the Ministry hadn't been the ones making the attempt, he would have never made it.

"Had he always planned to go through with this? Eventually?"

"Well, no. He knew the danger. He told you himself he wasn't sure about it. He kept putting the project down." Zane lowered his voice even more. "But it was very important for him to complete it. Just...just in case something like this happened. We let him think it was his idea all along, but it was really Tenma's. He put the idea in his head. It was...insurance. But if it was never needed it was always to be Astro's choice. We didn't really want it to come to this."

Cora growled a little bit. This was big. This was huge. And Astro had kept it from her. She thought the days of secrets between them had long gone, and now this. Cora gave Zane one last cold look before she turned on her heel and marched out.

"ASTROOOO!"

"Cora wait..." Zane said as he went after her.

She stormed up to Astro, and backed him against the wall. It was now his turn to be thoroughly afraid of HER. Even though he HAD been expecting to get yelled at, Cora in all her fury was exceptionally frightening. She brought herself up to her full height. She was satisfied to see that she was only a few inches shorter than him. Which was in truth, still a little too tall for her taste. Unless he was in the air, she was looking down at Astro, not up. It felt wrong.

"And WHY didn't you tell me about THIS?!"

"Would you have let me gone through with it if I did?" He had completely flattened himself to the wall, even turning his head sideways to avoid her accusational stare.

"At the risk of your life? Absolutely not!"

"I...I'm sorry. I'm sorry I didn't tell you."

Astro had a defeated, guilty look. One that she had seen on him far too much lately. She could see so much of the old Astro apparent in his expression, that it made her feel like a monster. Cora's anger disappeared in an instant. She took a moment to try to see things from his perspective. If this really _was_ her Astro, she was going about this the wrong way. Instead of being mean, she should be playing fair. This was probably just as strange and difficult for him as it was for her.

_Fine. I'll give him a chance._

Cora actually gave him a wry smile as she tilted her head and examined his features.

"Well, you're definitely going to take some getting used to."

Then she tugged on his bangs, and tousled them till they stuck up in a familiar way. To her surprise, she suddenly found herself overcome with curiosity. He was a new model and the scientist in her wanted to study him, as callous as that sounded.

"You look alot like your dad," she commented with a raised brow. "Not completely, but it's there." She thought Astro looked rather rakish and handsome, but she wouldn't tell him that. It would be more fun to tease him.

Astro wasn't really sure if she was trying to poke fun or just stating the obvious. "This is how I estimated I would look. Had I been able to grow older." Though his dad _had_ made some suggestions now that he thought about it.

Cora continued to mess with his hair. She was absolutely fascinated by it. It looked and felt incredibly real, not the cheap synthetic stuff she was used to seeing. This was the kind of advancement that would blur the line between humans and robots. She realized her first thought was whether or not it would withstand a firefight. Which was a reasonable thought, if this was indeed Astro. She was worried, given how soft it was. On further inspection, she identified the material as one she was familiar with, she just had never imagined it could made in this form. She nodded in satisfaction. It would be sufficiently durable. "This is deltome 454," she said as she played with the strands. "Your idea? Or your father's?"

"Dad's. Though I figured out the production process."

"It's brilliant."

"Thank you." Astro positively purred. He was enjoying this immensely. Not only had Cora's anger diminished completely, but she now apparently felt comfortable enough to touch him. His eyes closed as she ran her hands though his hair, front to back, combing out the dirt. Astro relaxed. He couldn't help smiling a bit. It felt WONDERFUL.

He felt even better when Cora gave a small laugh.

"You're filthy." She declared. She'd seen him enough times to know when he'd been digging. _Playing in the dirt again._ She didn't need any explanation as to how they got in here.

Zane meanwhile, once Cora's yelling had subsided, had helped himself to bags of expired vending machine goodies. He crunched loudly before he piped up. "He almost killed me you know. To rescue you I might add. I hope you appreciate it. You're welcome by the way."

Cora gave him a look.

"You look fine to me," Cora scoffed. "And don't talk with your mouth full. It's disgusting," she said dismissively as she dusted her hands off. _Boys. What does it truly mean to be an adult anyway?_ She thought as she looked at Zane and then back at a grubby Astro.

"Well I could have been smashed flat. Any chance you know if this place has a back door that we could just walk out of?" He was right, they needed to get back to thinking about leaving.

Cora exhaled loudly as she tried to think it through. She finally shook her head. "I've only seen a small portion of this place. I suppose it's possible, but I wouldn't know where to look. I wish I had something better to tell you. I say we follow...uh...Astro's... plan." She found it hard to call him thus, looking as he did, but despite her lingering reservations about him, she felt rewarded when he gave her one of his dreamy smiles. "If we could make it to a control center we might find some schematics too." She gave Astro a nudge. "If we can't make it to one, you could take on a few hundred robots right?"

"Um...maybe?" was his honest reply.

She stared at him. "Maybe?" Where was that cocky attitude of his when she needed it?

Zane, still eating, leaned against a tabletop and shook his head.

Astro attempted to engage an arm cannon. His arm folded out halfway with a hiss, and then stopped. He showed it to Cora. It _should_ have been an instantaneous action. Instead, it looked like a frozen exploded diagram, all swinging heat shields and actuator arms sticking out in all directions. A blatant bit of proof of Astro's robot identity, and a rather shocking thing to see.

"I never finished it," Astro said sadly. It wouldn't all go back on it's own either. He had to push everything back in place and then force it to close.

"So...no weapons?"

"No."

"No cannons, no lasers, no machine guns?"

"Nope. Nope. Nope. Nothing."

"Ah."

Zane smiled. "Makes things a bit more challenging, doesn't it?"

Astro was gazing inwardly. "I should have spent more time working on it. I'm going to have a lot of work to do if we manage to get out of this." He looked at Cora, all innocent charm. "You'll help me with it, right?"

Cora rolled her eyes at him. "OH, I see...now you want my help?"

"Welllll...there really isn't much point in keeping it a secret anymore," Astro said with a smile.

_Ahhh... there's that cocky attitude._

"You look like a big boy now, I'm sure you can handle it on your own," Cora said as she shot him down.

Astro's face fell.

Her gaze softened then. "What age are you supposed to be anyway?" She looked him up and down, he really had one of those ageless faces. He could be anywhere from twenty five to thirty five. "Your only really what? Eight? Almost nine?" Cora teased. She was talking robot years.

"I am twenty one years old," he reminded her unnecessarily, as he gave her a haughty look. "Or I would be, if well, you know..." it was a weird subject to talk about.

"Why build yourself older though, Astro," Cora asked, confused, "when you could be young forever?"

Astro looked down. His chin touching his collarbone. He pursed his lips together and then looked at her through his eyelashes. "It's just as Zane said the other day, you're all growing up." he said quietly. "Soon, I'd only have my robot friends, because my human ones are slowly moving on without me. All the friends I've picked up though the years...," he said wistfully as he thought of how many there truly were, "It's very hard for me to watch. They're getting jobs, having families. They have little time for a teenage robot. I can't really help them with any mundane problems. I can't participate or understand most of it without being able to do it myself. I like making new friends, I really do, but I miss my old ones." Cora couldn't understand how that would change matters, if they don't have time for a young robot, why would they for an older one?

Astro then looked very tired. "But there's more to it than that. I've seen and done a lot of things, and I no longer feel young anymore." There was a wizened look to his eyes. Cora had seen it before. Astro had indeed seen a lot in his short life. Far more than most do in an entire lifetime. "I want to grow up," He dared to take her hand, then he whispered, "and I want it to be with you." Cora's eyes widened. "I don't want to lose you Cora."

The truth hit her like a lighting bolt.

_These are all excuses. You didn't really build this for them. Or even for yourself._

_You did it for me._

Almost unconsciously, Cora reflexively gave his hand an affectionate squeeze. _You're really in there, aren't you?_ Tears were building in her eyes, she had to blink rapidly to dissipate them.

"It's just a temporary fix though." He continued sadly. He thought of her age out-pacing him again eventually. Providing he didn't get himself killed again in the meantime. Her thoughts must have been running along the same vain. _I AM being stupid. He isn't gone. He's right here. It's strange, yes. He's different, he's changed, but he's the same. I should be taking advantage of that, not pushing him away._ Without warning, Cora curled her arms around his neck and pulled him close.

"I'll take every day I can get," she said. Committing herself to him.

Astro smiled in surprise. He wrapped his arms around her and buried his face in her hair.

Zane was watching this whole exchange with a satisfied air. _There. That's better. I knew she'd come around. That didn't take long at all,_ he thought, even as he made a retching noise. "Hey, lovebirds, a little consideration here? I'm trying to eat."

Cora had ignored him, as she was used to doing. Astro gazed over her shoulder to give Zane an unquestionable look that said, _SHHHH! Don't ruin this for me._ He wanted to hold her for as long she was content to let him.

Cora had snuggled into him further. She found she was reveling in the sensation more than she felt she should. His skin had a small amount of yield, and through it she could feel his stronger framework underneath. She could smell the earth on his clothes, a lingering scent of fabric softener, and something else, something coming from him. He smelled new. Like...Cora thought hard to identify it, she knew this. Her eyes lit up. Like hot solder, a newly finished circuit board. It wouldn't sound like much to anyone else, but to someone like herself, it smelled like new possibilities, which was very fitting. She found it intoxicating, and she wondered how long the smell would take to fade.

Cora remained like that for quite some time, contentedly savoring him as the minutes stretched on. Thankful for every rise and fall of his chest. Knowing that, very soon, they had to leave this room and, once again, run headlong into danger.

* * *

_There, you happy? I finally ended a chapter on a not-quite-a-cliffhanger. Though things might get a bit rough next chapter. If you'll excuse me, I'm gagging on all this romance stuff. But I might as well get used to it I suppose..._


	11. Chapter 11

_In my first story concept, Cora wasn't to accept Astro until the very end of the story. It was to be a more gradual process, with him finally winning her over. But with her impulsive nature and her long friendship with him, dragging it out didn't seem feasible. Plus, I felt it would stunt future character interaction. So there, that's that. Oh, and I'm sure you've noticed that our dear Atom gets hugged in like, almost every chapter. That's no accident. Why, you may ask?_

_Because he deserves it!_

* * *

Cora ended the moment as abruptly as she had started it. She pushed herself away with enough force to rock him. Astro felt bereft at the suddenness of it. Little did he know that Cora HAD to, or she'd want to stand there all day. She took his hand to reassure him and to maintain her own need for contact. She wasn't normally this clingy, but now that she was sure she had him back, she was determined not to let him out of her sight. An impossible feat, but there's nothing quite like spending a week thinking he was lost to bring that out of her.

"All right," she declared loudly. "I'm ready to get out of here. I never want to see this room again."

"Hang on a sec'," Zane said as he grabbed more food and shoved it all in his pockets.

Cora rolled her eyes. "You're taking munchies? Really? This isn't a picnic." She should have known that a dire situation wouldn't get between him and his stomach.

"I'm not going to overlook a boon when it's sent my way. Hey look," he said as he held one up. "Kit Kat. They don't even make these anymore." He chuckled pleasurably to himself.

"It's so old...you keep eating that stuff and you'll get sick." Cora had been far too upset to eat any of it herself. Though now she had to admit that it was looking good. "Sick or something else. Maybe you'll get worms."

Astro then said innocently, "Not if he already has them."

This caused uncontrollable bark of laughter to escape Cora, and she turned to smile at him. _Good one._ It felt great to laugh.

Astro rarely made a joke at anyone's expense, but he knew it wouldn't bother Zane and it made Cora glow. On seeing this glimmer of genuine happyness, Astro had to fight the urge to scoop her up again.

"Hardy har har, let's pick on poor Zane." He said in a mock-hurt tone, even as he laughed himself. He walked up to them with full pockets in both his jeans and his jacket. "It's not fair, you know, you two can five minutes huggen' on each other-" He took this time to make kissy noises at them both. Cora's shoulders straightened as she narrowed an eye at him, but he stayed carefully out of her reach. "-Wile, I," he pointed at himself in a grandiose gesture. "am preparing for the worst of circumstances. I'm making a reasonable assumption that there's going to be a great deal of running in our future, and a little sugar might be necessary."

Cora couldn't argue with that. For the short amount of time she had been loose, trying to navigate in this place had seemed impossible. There was no telling how long this would take, providing they could keep from getting caught.

Then Zane gave Cora a stupid grin. "Hopefully we won't need it. Then I can keep it all to myself."

"Ewww," Cora couldn't help smiling as she started for the door, dragging Astro with her. She gave Zane a shove as he kept pace beside them. "It's all yours."

Zane stopped at the door and tried to pull the axe out of the door frame. It wouldn't budge.

"That's really in there, wow. I'm glad you missed, Cora," he grunted. "I really, really am. I thought I was going to lose my head."

"I didn't miss," she said this with a vicious confidence. "I've had a lot time to practice."

Zane gulped.

Astro pulled it out with ease and even twirled it around before handing it to Zane with a smile.

"Showoff," Zane muttered.

Astro continued smiling as he brought a finger to his lips to ask for silence. He strained his ears to their amplification limit. The thick wall and floor construction dampened and distorted a lot of the sound. Zane and Cora both looked at him expectantly.

"Nothing on this floor, from what I can tell...," Astro said as he cocked his head one side to the other. "There are several smaller group upstairs, and...," he closed his eyes as he concentrated. He wasn't able to pinpoint anything accurately more than a few floors, up or down. This bothered him. _Oh, don't let there be anything wrong with my ears._ He was expecting a few bugs, a few glitches, with such a hasty assemble that his father would have been forced to make. But he was really hoping it wouldn't be an issue, not with anything important, not with anything he'd have to use. At least he could count on the things he'd assembled himself. Unfortunately, his ears hadn't been one of those things.

Astro opened his eyes. "Strange, the groups get bigger the higher the floor. But there are none on the the floor below, or the ones underneath that, from what I can tell."

Zane nodded. "Yeah, the numbers probably thicken the closer to the entrance that we get. This just gets better and better."

Cora looked from one to the other. "So there's no way out but up?"

They were all quiet. The closer they got to their goal, the more difficult things would become. Astro prided himself on being able get out of just about anywhere, but he had two human friends to worry about.

"What if we just let ourselves get caught?"

Cora and Zane looked at him like he'd just lost his mind.

"What? They take us to Striker, I'll give him the business, tie him up real nice, make a hostage out of _him_ for a change, the robots back off, and then we walk out."

Cora looked angry at his suggestion. "Uh, no. Personally, I want a piece of this guy and I'm sure Zane would too," She looked to Zane for affirmation, and he gave an enthusiastic nod. "But did you forget that this guys a real lunatic? I don't want you anywhere near him. I'm sure he'd be perfectly happy to destroy you a second time."

Astro looked at them confused. More so at Zane. Zane had refused to divulge any information about what had happened that day. Astro didn't remember Cora's involvement at all. "Yeah, I'm not a hundred percent clear on that."

"What? Are you kidding?" Cora asked. She started to launch into a lengthy rant when Zane stopped her.

"Don't Cora. He doesn't seem to remember what happened."

"He doesn't remember?" How can he not...?

_The transfer._

Cora looked at Astro as the whole horrible scene replayed in her mind.

"Good." She tightened her grip on him. "He shouldn't have to." Her voice was quiet, but was as intense as her gaze.

"See? That's how I felt about it too," Zane said.

"I'm right here, guys. Are you going to tell me what happened or what?"

"No." Zane said.

"Cora?" Astro asked her. She'd tell him.

Cora shook her head at him. There was a slight mischievous gleam in her eye.

"No. I can't, Astro. I'm Sorry." _You kept a secret from me, now this one is mine. That's payback and a favor all in one._

Astro didn't know whether to be angry or touched. They cared about him to the point of driving him crazy sometimes. He decided it would just be best to let it go. It may take years, but he knew they would tell him eventually.

"Ok, fine. We don't take a direct approach. We'll stick to the original plan. Shut down the robots and sneak out."

They walked quietly out of the room and into the corridor. Astro took the lead, listening intently. It was incredibly eerie. Infrequent light flickered dimly along the walls as their footsteps echoed back at them. Zane gripped the axe as though he expected something to jump out of the shadows. Cora kept as close to Astro as she could without distracting him. They made it up to the next floor without incident. Astro came to a sudden stop and Cora collided with him. He steadied her absently.

"We can't ascend to the next floor. They're right above us." He turned and looked far into the darkness.

Zane was really starting to get creeped out. "There has to be another set of stairs somewhere. Maybe a nice elevator?"

Astro was quiet. He wasn't listening to Zane, but he was obviously hearing something.

"They're behind us."

Without another word they began to run forward. The corridor seemed to go on forever. As they passed an intersection Astro braked again, his boots scraping loudly as he slid to a stop.

"No," he said to them as he backpedaled, "There's more up that way." He took off to the right and they followed.

It swiftly came to a dead end.

Astro growled to himself. _You don't just have path that leads nowhere..._

Cora kept looking the way they had come. "Do we have time to turn back?"

Astro was busy studying the wall.

He punched an experimental hole into it.

Metal. The whole wall WAS the door.

There. A barely visible keypad.

_Hmm._ He punched a hole in it as well.

The wall slid upward with a whoosh.

They ran into a dark cavernous room. Knowing how little time there was to spare Astro jumped up and pulled the door back down. He cringed as he broke the door lifting mechanisms, they popped with a sound so loud that it must have bounced all the way back to the stairs. He set it down gently and took a look out of his self-made peep hole.

The hall suddenly lit up with their numbers. They sounded like insects to him. Like the clicking of mandibles. They clicked and tapped and whirred like a swarm of locusts. If they were really saying anything to each other it wasn't in any robot dialect he had ever heard before. It might as well be a forgotten language unspoken for centurys. He found that particularly frustrating. He had really hoped that if it came down to it, he'd be able to talk them into letting them go. He wondered if they had any sort of AI at all. If not, that made them even more dangerous. If they couldn't think for themselves, they couldn't be reasoned with, and could be capable of anything at all. Complete slaves to their programming. But Cora was right. It would also make them incredibly stupid.

Astro quickly bent the metal together as neatly as he could to close up the hole before it was noticed.

Zane and Cora had not advanced very far. They stood quite close to Astro as they listened to the ruckus the robots were making outside.

Zane was riding the adrenaline and smiled gleefully to himself in the absolute darkness. "Well, that could have gone worse," he whispered.

Cora quickly shushed him. "Don't say things like that, you dummy. That's when thing's do."

Astro blinded them both as his eye disks lit up.

"Gaah!" they both said in unison as they shielded their faces.

Astro chucked to himself. That never got old.

It was a storage room. Racks extended thirty feet high from the floor to ceiling, and ran far into the distance.

Astro found a large junction box along the wall. He pushed up on the large lever on the side. The lights powered up with a good amount of noise. They created an intense hum that almost rivaled the sound of the robots outside. Before Astro could consider turning them back off the sound faded.

Weapons.

More weapons than Astro had seen in one place at any time.

Zane and Cora followed him as he walked down a row.

These weren't anything too modern though. He recognized a lot of them. He stopped in front of one and rubbed the dust from it.

"Strikers been a busy boy," Zane whistled. "What a hoard."

Cora had stopped alongside Astro as Zane walked on ahead, gazing up and down the rows. She looked at the dusty elegant metal but couldn't make heads or tales of it.

"It's a Foryars Needle," Astro announced. "A decibel weapon. Uh.. a sound gun. With an adjustable beam. Hardly common anymore." He pointed to the one above it. "Moore's light pistol. That's a photon gun of course. Accuracy on those are terrible." Astro pointed to another and another. Labeling each one like an old friend. Cora had always known Astro as a peaceable fellow, he would always try talking first, only fighting when it was necessary to do so. She hadn't seen this side of him before.

"I didn't realize you knew so much about this kind of stuff?"

Astro paused. His gaze was distant. When he looked up, he didn't quite meet Cora's eyes.

"It used to be an interest of mine. Long ago."

"Oh." _You mean a lifetime ago. Or I guess that would be two lifetimes. No... I suppose that's three now._

Astro was a weapon himself. Though he really wasn't much of one at the moment, he still had the capability to be one. Cora wondered if it was something he enjoyed or detested. She guessed it was probably a little bit of both. It could be for good or ill, as recent events had proven. It's all in who welds it. It sure would be handy about now. Lazy bot. Which got her wondering about something else entirely.

"When exactly did you start working on it?" Cora asked casually.

"Working on what?" Astro asked, genuinely confused.

"On this," she said, pointing at him. "All of you." She was looking for a confession.

"Um.. couple of years ago."

_Huh. Same time I started working at the Ministry. Interesting._

"That seems like a long time. Especially for you. Why you didn't have it finished? Zane seemed to think you never planned on going through with it."

"For a while I wasn't, Maybe I wasn't excited about the idea. I went back and forth about it. But..lately...I had been reconsidering it."

"Well I'm sure it's easy to declare after the fact, but what I want to know is, would you really gone through with it if you hadn't been forced to?"

"Yes," he said confidently.

"So then... it wasn't just the danger that held you back?"

Astro realized what she was looking for. _Damn she's good. I fell right into it._

"So what was it?" She demanded.

Astro spent some time looking at her with sideways glances, thinking about how much he should say.

_Damn and double damn._

"I thought...well, I thought that you...you might...even back then and..." There's that nervous feeling again.

_Uh, huh, go on..._

"But then it seemed sillier the more I thought about it. It couldn't work, not with you being a...and me being a...I didn't think you would ever really...and I didn't think it would be worth the risk if we couldn't ever be..."

He shook his head as if he couldn't believe it himself. Then he gave her another glance and a shy smile.

"But you proved me wrong."

_Best bad decision I ever made,_ Cora thought smugly.

Astro continued. "There were lots of other good reasons. Ones that I felt were just as important, like the ones I gave you, I meant everything I said back there. But those I didn't feel quite as passionate about." He gazed at her fully then.

_Passionate? About me?_

Astro shifted from foot to foot. Something Cora liked to call his awkward stance dance.

"So, um.. do you like it?"

"Hmm? Oh, it's nice."

"Just nice?"

"Um...nice and...expensive?"

"Well, yes. It was. I mean, I am. But that's not what I was hoping you'd say."

"Is my approval that important to you?" Cora said offhandedly.

"Yes!" She was toying with him and he knew it.

"I suppose it will do."

"That's a horrible answer!"

"I'm a horrible person," she said matter-of-factly. She gave him her most dastardly smile. "and I'm all yours!"

"Wonderful." Astro said sarcastically, even as his heart soared.

Cora took his hand and they continued up the isle. Hopefully there would be a back door out of this place.

"Where the hell did Zane get to?," she grumbled. She had hoped he wouldn't wander off too far. "I don't want us to get separated, not AGAIN. Not in this spooky Labyrinth."

Then they heard Zane scream.

The sound bounced around the room as they ran. Astro outdistanced her immediately, and disappeared around the far corner. Leaving her far behind.

Cora could have screamed herself if she had the breath for it.

_What the hell did I just say!_

* * *

_Yeah, it's a short chapter, I know. And another stupid cliffhanger. I did far more drawing than writing this week. My interests drift from time to time. Don't worry, I'll make next weeks super long, ok?_


	12. Chapter 12

_Not a whole lot of action for you kiddies this week. No, you get a whole lot of talking. Try not to fall asleep, K?_

* * *

The running speed of the average human is not very impressive. The endurance of which is even less. Cora was no exception. She hadn't done this kind of running since collage track. _I spend too much time in the lab sitting at a desk._

_Ok, he ran around this corner and.._

The layout of the room changed. What was a grove of racks in the front of the room, turned into a forest of four-sided monolithic columns, seeming spaced in completely random patterns, with virtually no organization present.

"Ahh, what? Come on. Who arranges ANYTHING like this?" Cora was livid as she threw her hands up.

There was, of course, no Astro in sight. She knew he was in there, she could still hear his pounding metallic feet. There would be no calling him back, at least not until he'd found his quarry.

Then she realized this was an area that was less for display and more for general storage. Most of the racks were empty, and there were numerous stacking crates clogging most of the pathways. _I'm going to get totally lost in there._ "Do I stay, or go?" She could move forward and try to catch up, unless of course she made a wrong turn and managed to distance herself further from her friends. How big could this place possibly be?

Surly it would be smarter if she stayed put. They would come back for her. Now she stood in place, undecided. She stomped her foot.

_Oh, who am I kidding? I'm not staying put._

She hoped Zane wasn't in any real trouble. He was easily startled, so the chances were good that he was just being an obnoxiously noisy git. There was no way to know, so she understood why Astro had left her behind, but that didn't make her any less miffed about it.

"We needed to stay togetherrrrr," Cora whined to herself as she slipped between a tall stack of unmarked wooden packing crates and some corrugated metal sheets. Her sleeve caught and tore on an errant nail. She growled in frustration and dug her fingers into her palms.

"Ooooo, when I see those two... First, I'm going give Zane a nice slap. Wandering off...what a stupid thing to do." Her litany drifted off as she tried to come up with a suitable punishment for Astro.

_What's wrong with me?_

She paused and took a deep, relaxing breath. Willing her jangled nerves to calm themselves.

_I always do this. It's my go-to emotion, and it has to stop. I'm not mad at all. I'm really just scared. Scared to be alone again._

It wouldn't be right to punish him for something that came naturally to him anyway. That was just the way he was, and as frustrating as it can be sometimes, she always knew to expect it. Besides, about the only real damage she could do to him was to hurt his feelings. Cora knew she had screwed with those enough today. That must have been so painful for him, her doubting him like that. Treating him like a stranger. It had just been so shocking! But he had understood, as always. He was just too nice. Too caring. Too forgiving. Too patient. It had to be his only personality trait that struck her as inhuman. Humans are mean and crazy. If life had taught her anything, it's that NOBODYS that nice, no matter how hard they strive to be. Especially her. Especially to him. Cora hadn't been just fooling around, as lightheartedly as she had put it, she really felt like a horrible person. Why did she always have to be so guarded and defensive anyway? If she ever did or said one bad thing to Astro (which she had) it was one thing too much.

He deserved better than that. A familiar icy sliver split her heart.

It wasn't just the obvious obstacles or difficulties between them as to why she had kept her distance all these years. It wasn't just the age business or the friendship angle. It certainly wasn't about him being a robot, which was a whole can of worms in and of itself. That didn't bother her, she was willing to deal with whatever problems it caused. Let people say and think what they may. Let them think her weird, or feel sorry for her, or even hate her. She didn't care. Those that knew him, knew better. Astro wasn't just a human emulation. There was somebody in there. A person. A good person.

A great person.

And that was her secret fear.

She was afraid she would be bad for him.

Perhaps he deserved someone better than her.

Cora never thought it would become an issue. She couldn't have imagined things would ever progress this far. She couldn't believe it was really happening even now. She thought she would be walking that rope forever. They were to play by the rules. Friends, nothing more. No knee-deep complications. She could be a great friend, sure. But a partner? For Astro of all people? Then, with one uncontrolled action, the string was cut and she plummeted too far.

Cora was committed. She had all but pledged that to him, and one did not lie to Astro, not her, not outright. It simply wasn't done. And now she was faced with the possible consequences.

Cora shook her head to herself. This wasn't productive thought at all. No. She wouldn't let this fall apart because of her own insecurities. She had wanted this for too long. This was a priceless gift. She swore then to be extra good to him, even when he was being ornery.

Shouldn't be too hard. Even when he was being difficult, he was still pretty endearing.

_Maybe I can change too._

Cora smiled as she blundered on. The thought had put a spring in her step.

* * *

Astro dodged and weaved around obstacles he barely saw. When his path became blocked he didn't bother to stop and gave his jets their first real trial run.

_Enough with this earthbound business._

They fired up beautifully.

"Hah!" He exclaimed proudly. His jets had been his own bit of craftsmanship. He was quite satisfied that his modified duplication of the design had worked so perfectly. He had made many adjustments for his own desire for more speed, on top of the compensations that had to be made for his additional size and weight. By the time he was finished, he had something that looked similar, yet uniquely different. Astro had been more than a little worried as to how well they would preform.

_Wait till I show dad. He'll be proud of me._

This was coupled with a darker, more rebellious thought.

_Anything you can do, I can do better._

Astro's elation was short-lived, however. As he reached the apex of his curve, there was a sudden and totally unexpected burst of acceleration. This resulted in a particularly violent impact as his head and shoulders met with one ceiling support girder. With a clang and a smack and a fair amount of scattering dust, Astro landed face down on a tall stack of wooden pallets that swayed precariously before returning to restful state.

Astro sat up as he rubbed the back of his neck.

"Ouch."

It could have been that his enthusiasm had got the better of him, or a miscalculation, or because there was so little clearance that it hadn't been a good idea in the first place.

_Or maybe I goofed something up._

If his feelings could have been put into words, they would have been, _**this sucks**._ He was glad no one had been around to see it.

_I guess I still have a few things to learn..._

Astro dropped the matter. If it turned out to be a problem, he'd have to worry about fixing it later. Right now, he was on a mission. At least he couldn't have landed on a better vantage point. The extensive warehouse consumed not only the current level but also extended into the one above. From where he stood Astro could see a catwalk that ran up the far wall to a door that would give them access to the next floor. He made note of his orientation so he could find it later.

Astro crouched as he listened, mildly annoyed. _I can't believe you managed to wander so far, you squirrely little bugger._

Astro waited.

_Come on, Zane, make some noise._

He heard a crashing, miscellaneous in nature, just up ahead.

Astro jumped to the floor, sending off a scatter of concrete shot as he landed. He didn't have to go far. He found Zane pulling apart a pile of discarded weapon parts, apparently trying to piece together the dismantled items. He looked up at Astro briefly as he continued his preoccupation.

"Oh, Astro, there you are." Like nothing was amiss.

Astro facepalmed and counted to ten. "You're not in trouble."

"Unusual, no? I thought I'd try a change of pace." He frowned at the part he'd been holding, dropped it, and reached for another.

"So what were you screaming about?" Astro demanded.

Zane lifted his head as he worked. "Hmm?" Then tipped his head to indicate the alcove across from them. "Just that."

When Astro looked he yelped himself. Of their own accord, his arm cannons tried to engage themselves as he was taken by surprise. In front of him stood five robots much like the ones they had just left behind. Their arms frozen in an uplifted pose as if they were reaching for him. They had either been deactivated or depleted of energy long ago, and now stood like motionless sentries, so completely rusted that they would never move again.

"Yeah, see?" Zane said pointedly, "Pretty scary, huh?"

Astro could only groan as he looked at his now useless hands, they were a half-unfolded travesty. He looked to Zane. "Hey. A little help?," Astro said as he held them out.

Zane put his project down and folded up one arm under Astro's direction, and then helped him with the other.

Zane talked as he worked. "I'm suspecting that these robots here were the base model for our friends outside."

Astro was looking closely at the robots now. They sported no weaponry, and in fact, looked rather benign. When Zane had finished, Astro walked up to one and attempted to decipher a company logo embossed on it's side.

"Fermi Communications?," Astro said, puzzled.

Zane shrugged. "This wasn't always Striker's hide-out. It's obviously been here a long time, and he decided to move in. Those robots, these guns. That seems to be his bag. Taking the old, and refashioning them into something new." Zane indicated the pile of weapon parts. "These here were unassembled, the designs studied, the parts recast or modified, and then discarded. That EMpulse cannon was much the same way. It had an old look to it, but it was new and functional."

Astro nodded. "So it would look like it was made outside the city."

Zane was nodding too. "Removing Striker from suspicion. Yes. Everything we saw up front were just the ones he hasn't gotten to yet. He could go on doing this for decades. I bet his shareholders and directors would love to know about his little 'side business'. I'm sure we'll find a whole automated production floor upstairs."

"Who's he selling them all to? The people around here aren't THAT discontent."

"Oh, my dear Astro, always the optimist. There are plenty of other large cities in this world, maybe not as fancy or advanced as ours, but just as populated. Angry people are everywhere. He might even be smuggling as far as the Moon or Mars colonies. Who knows."

Astro was standing in a somewhat depressed mode of thought when Zane touched his shoulder.

"Hey, where's Cora?"

"She was right behind..." Astro froze in place. If blood could have drained from his face, it certainly would have. He'd been so fixated he'd forgotten. Forgotten Cora? "Oh, no. She's going to kill us, isn't she?"

Zane held up a finger. "Correction. She's going to kill you," he said as he pointed it at Astro. "She expects this kind of behavior from me."

"But you're the one that wandered off! I thought you were in trouble! It's only fair then that you should be,...with her!"

"All right. Fine. Fine. Settle down. I'll take the heat for this one." Zane tutted. "All that horsepower and you're afraid of a girl."

They both began to head back at once, but then Zane made sure to hang back and let Astro take the lead. Astro stopped. He looked down his nose at Zane and crossed his arms, eyebrows raised.

"You, um.. you don't mind walking ahead, do you?" Zane said meekly.

Silence from Astro.

"What? Last time it was an axe. An axe! This place is full of guns! I need protection!.." Zane poked Astro in his chest. "Come on, do what I say robot. Obey thine human masters! Don't make me recite the laws to you!" It was all so much bluster. These words were extremely laughable coming from a leader of robot revolutionaries.

Astro remained unmoving. Well, maybe he lifted an eyebrow a little higher.

Zane made a tactical 180. "You know you've always been like a brother to me, right? You really have." Zane was positively pitiful. Astro had to clench his jaw tight, hoping he was still maintaining his stern look.

Zane jumped straight up as the inspiration struck him. He clapped his hands together.

"Ooooh OH! AH! I got it!" He jumped forward and back, snapping his fingers repeatedly. "Please. It's please. It's allllways please. I'm saying please!"

Astro's shoulders sagged as he fought back a smile.

"Pretty..pretty..pretttyyyy..."

Astro couldn't take it anymore. He dropped his arms and proceeded to leave, waving his hands in a dismissary gesture. "Stop. Stop. I'll do anything you want. Just. Stop."

Zane didn't really hang behind exactly. He couldn't enjoy spewing a steady stream of his usual jabber if he was talking to Astro's back, so it wasn't long till Zane was striding up beside him, his previous fears either seeming forgotten, or worth sacrificing. "So, um, Astro, I couldn't help wondering, and stop me if I'm delving into something too personal..."

Astro was already tensing his shoulders.

"But have you given any thought as to how your going to proceed with this little relationship of yours?"

Astro looked at him confusedly. "What do you mean?" Astro really knew exactly what he meant. He had given the matter very much thought for many years. He had finally decided that he didn't like thinking about it.

"Well, you know not everyone is going to be happy about the whole human/robot dynamic, right?"

"I'm very aware." Astro said determinedly. "I'll take whatever comes."

"Oh, don't get me wrong, Astro, I'm not trying to bring you down, some people will think it's great, and I'm really glad that's your attitude. I think you two will set a really great example."

Astro narrowed his eyes at Zane in suspicion. "An example? We're an example? Perhaps to further a particular person's cause?"

Zane shrunk under his scrutiny. "It's _our_ cause Astro. I want to see you take a side. I know you're divided on the issue, I know you want everyone to get along, but things can't continue like this. Robots are getting more like us everyday. They're starting to want more. You are the best representative we could hope for."

Astro stopped in his tracks as he realized what Zane was implying.

"You want me to start asking for our independence? Publicly?"

Zane was pleading with his eyes again. "They all look up to you Astro. You are not only the most powerful, but also the most advanced robot ever made. You are the proof of what is to come."

Astro walked briskly past him, forcing Zane to speed up. "There will be fighting." Astro said sadly.

"Yes, there will be. There always is. But I can only do so much in my circles. Elefun's got a rights bill he would just love to try to push through, but with the recent scare he's pushed it back. It was his hope, and mine, that you would try taking a stand on your own, convince the people yourself. You do have this certain knack for winning people over."

Astro was thinking about it. He HAD thought about it before. His friends might have thought he was comfortable with his lot in life, and he let them think that, but he was not. He probably could have asked for his citizenship, and the city might have given it to him. He had won over a lot of influential people. But he would never ask for it. It wouldn't be fair. If they gave it to him they gave it to all robots everywhere or not at all.

Zane mistook his silence for dissent. "How are you going to take out Cora if you don't get paid, huh? With that allowance your father gives you?"

Astro growled out his next bit. "I don't feel like I should get payed for what I do, Zane. I do it because it's the right thing to do. Because I feel it's what I was made to do."

Zane stopped Astro with a hand on his arm, the slightest amount of anger in his own voice. "Yeah? Well, that's noble, I'll give you that, but it doesn't help pay the bills. You could at least get payed for what you do when you're at the Ministry. How can you be your own man when you're the property of someone else?" Then Zane sighed. He didn't want to lose his temper, and he didn't want to push Astro too far. He decided to let it drop. "Just think about it ok? I want everyone to be happy too."

They walked quietly for awhile, sometimes having to double back when their path became obstructed. The absence of sound was making Zane uncomfortable, and he felt the need to break it. He was afraid Astro was pretty ticked.

"I've always kinda envied that about you robots, you know."

Astro couldn't help but be curious. "Envy what?"

"You all know what you're doing here. What your purpose in life is. Where you belong. Us humans may spend a lifetime trying to figure it out, and still never find it." Zane sounded as if he wasn't sure if he'd found it himself or not.

Astro didn't know what to say to that. Whenever Zane wanted peace, he tended to get a little philosophical. Astro said nothing, but clapped a hand on Zane's shoulder to show that there were no hard feelings between them.

Of course this small gesture of forgiveness was all Zane needed to turn back into his bouncy gabby self again.

"So supposing we lived in a perfect world," Zane began, "What would your future plans with Cora be?"

_Again with the personal questions? Why didn't I just let him continue to think I was mad at him?_

Despite this thought, Astro smiled. "I donno. It's a little soon to be making any crazy plans."

"But you have some right?," Zane asked eagerly.

"In this perfect, _hypothetical,_ world...Well...We would have a nice little house. Maybe just outside of town. Someplace with trees and grass."

"And?"

"Um, maybe a dog."

"And?"

"That's it."

"That's it? All that processing power and that's all you've got?"

"It's all I've ever really wanted."

"You know the more you get, the more you'll want."

"I'll have to get it first. Then I guess I'll find out if I do or not."

"Hm." Zane said, noncommittally.

Astro's face grew concerned as his surroundings started to become familiar. He was apprehensive as to whether Cora had waited or followed him in. He hoped it was the former. He called for her anyway.

"CORA!"

"Up here."

Zane and Astro both looked up to find Cora high above them, looking rather forlorn as she sat atop a stack of plasteel packing crates.

"Oh, hello. What are you doing up there?" Zane inquired pleasantly, so glad he was out of her reach.

Surprisingly, there was no snarky remark. "I managed to crawl up the back, but now I can't get down."

When it was apparent that no screaming was to follow, Astro and Zane looked at one another, and then back at Cora.

Zane ventured to ask slowly, "So you're not angry..."

Cora shook her head. "No. Should I be?" Not the slightest trace of implied sarcasm.

Astro turned back to Zane and whispered. "Should we be worried? You think she might be up to something?"

Zane whispered back as he shook his head sadly. "No, dude, I think we broke her." Then he shouted up at Cora. "We're going to get you down." Then he turned to Astro. "Well, go on man, get her down."

When Astro hesitated, Cora finally smiled and for a moment she sounded a little more like herself. "Those DO _work_, right?"

When Astro found himself under both their scrutiny, he squared his shoulders.

"Of course they do!" Astro proclaimed. Maybe just a little more loudly then he needed to. Just to prove it, he gave his right foot a slight swing, momentarily igniting his jet just long enough to leave a tremendous scorch mark on the floor.

_Ohpleaseohplease don't let me kill Cora._

His worries proved unfounded as he flew up with no problems. Cora buried her face in his neck as he embraced her. He released a sigh of relief right next to her ear. It was nice to find her, nice to hold her, and it felt pretty good not to see her as a great pulpy red smear on the ceiling as well.

_Maybe this new me just takes a little practice. I haven't had a whole lot of time to get used to it after all. _

When he brought her back down, he refused to release her. He leaned his head against her own. "You ok?" he asked her softly.

She leaned back a bit to smile and nod. "MmHm. I'm fine."

Astro wasn't so sure. Cora was acting funny. He didn't like it.

Zane got between them. "No more hugging sessions. Lets go. I do NOT want to have to find a bathroom in this fortress of doom."

Astro turned to where he had seen the catwalk. "This way," he said as he pointed.

Now that his friends were safely behind him, Astro simply pushed everything out of their way. It was a much better, if louder, way to travel. Astro hoped he wasn't attracting any robots toward their exit. He'd hate to get there and find them clustered right outside the door. The walls were thick, but not soundproof. They had just reached the wall when Astro suddenly found himself falling though the floor.

"Astro!" Cora yelled.

Astro didn't tumble very far. Turns out his last feat of strength had uncovered an only partially closed utility tunnel entrance that ran just under the side of the room.

Astro looked up to see Zane and Cora looking down at him. Cora looked concerned, while Zane got down on his knees and shouted down at him. "Gyroscopes man!"

"IT ISN"T -," Astro began to yell, but then muttered to himself, turning away from them as he looked at his surroundings. "- it isn't my gyroscopes. Can't I be a little clumsy?"

What Astro finally saw cheered him immensely. He shouted back up to them. "Power conduits! Great big ones!"

Zane was now on his stomach, dangling his arm into the hole, swinging it from side to side either out of fun or boredom. "So?"

Astro looked up at him disappointingly. "Big wires mean big power. Big power leads to big control centers. We follow the lines."

Zane squinted. He could just barely see them himself. "Yeah, ok. But they don't run side to side. They run up and -"

"Down. Yes," Astro finished for him. "There is a main control center somewhere beneath our feet. We've been doing it the hard way. As far as I can tell, there _are_ no robots guarding the lower floors. We need to go _down_."

Zane smacked his forehead as he turned to look up at Cora. "This is never going to end."

* * *

_And that's just about the way I feel about it too!_


	13. Chapter 13

_Would you challenge the collective power of three million cybermen to a game of chess? Even if you invented the game? I would not. That would be a risky move indeed._

* * *

Pattern recognition is a key function of the brain. You don't really see all you think you see, not that your not trying. Three times every second, your eyes shift to a different point in space to create the world around you. It only gives the impression that you see everything in front of you, when in truth you are only focusing on one tiny little spot at a time. The ability to singly focus on each and every object in your immediate environment at once is impossible. Your brain fills in the blanks for you. Isn't that nice? And it's incredibly efficient. Imagine the energy that would be necessary to power a brain that had to process everything at once! Instead, it runs on a method of recognizing and dismissing normal objects and zeroing in on those that seem out of place. Your sensory systems really only pick up when something looks or sounds or smells different, wrong, or unusual. It's because of this bit of deception, and the whole point of this boring lecture, that causes the brain to try to predict what will happen next! This makes perfect sense of course. The ability to plan ahead will always be a useful and necessary survival skill. Unfortunately it is also this uncontrollable advantage that causes us to leap to immediate conclusions. It's never a good idea to make an assumption based on a first impression. Many mistakes were made and will continue to be made this way. One should never assume anything. Ever. Not until they know the facts. Things are never as they seem.

As was the case for Striker's sentinels.

Just because they couldn't be understood, did not mean that they were inferior.

They were far from stupid.

Astro was running on an assumption.

Bad Astro.

To err isn't just human apparently. Or maybe he was just a little too much so.

As with most hive minds, they worked as one unit. They all thought as one. They all saw as one. They were all individual cells of one incredibly harmonized body. Their droning and clicking and buzzing was only a byproduct of their physical movements and an external indication of their overall agitation. Not a language in an of itself. They didn't have a language. They didn't need one. It was a silent, closed conversation, held only between themselves, with all possible opinions, thoughts or objections instantly kept or discarded, melding into one voice that fluidly aligned together into the best possible outcome. They were incredibly intelligent. The processing power of each individual added to the whole. The greater the number the smarter the group. And their numbers were strong.

And they knew something was up.

There had not been suspicious activity of this magnitude on any file on record. The Authority had been notified.

It was time to sweep the compound.

* * *

"I've never really been much of a gun guy myself," Zane drawled as he lifted the weapon. "I'd rather fight with my brains. Stop laughing!... But I suppose it would be a little folly not to take something just in case. Seeing how it's all right here."

"Your holding it backwards," Astro said with a smile.

"Oh, Jeez!" Zane fumbled with it so fast, he almost dropped it. In his attempt to make the save he tripped himself up on the strap and dropped himself instead. He cradled the weapon in his lap as he fell, afraid it might go off if it hit the floor. He held it up triumphantly after he landed, as if to save a minute amount of pride, then he sucked in a pained breath. "Oh...," he moaned. "Right on my keys."

Astro and Cora were both trying to hide smiles behind sympathetic faces. Astro helped Zane to his feet. He nodded at the weapon.

"It's out of charge anyway."

Zane frowned, downhearted. "Uuuggg. Why do I try?" He looked to Astro. "You could like, give it some juice, right?"

Astro nodded. "I could. But I won't. That's an EM weapon."

"It's not like I'm going to use it on _you_," Zane said as he gave Cora a knowing glance. HE had been the one that returned Hamegg's car with a discharged cannon in the back seat. Cora turned two shades of red, unseen by Astro. She held a finger to her lips for a fleeting moment. She'd tell Astro about that at a later time...maybe. It had been for his own good, after all. There was no malice in her voice when she spoke.

"It's too risky," Cora said as she shook her head. "The emanation will likely scatter. There's so much stuff for the wave to bounce off of in here. Astro might get hit."

Zane dropped it heavily to the floor and kicked it out of sight. He looked at all the other things he could choose from. He grimaced, and then slapped his hands to his sides. "Then it's just as well if I don't take anything. I don't know what I'm doing with it. I don't know what any of these do." He looked back at Astro. "You've got your eye on something, right?"

"Nope."

"You're not taking anything?"

Astro tilted his head thoughtfully, then held up his fists. "Just these guns." He was not talking about his nonfunctional installations.

Cora groaned into her hand as she covered her rolling eyes. Thoroughly amused.

Astro heard this. He shrugged as he turned to look at Cora. "What?"

Cora peeped over her fingers at him. "You. You're just so..."

"So what?" Astro smiled at her. He'd been hoping to coax her out of her recent strange behavior. He was afraid she was mad at him for leaving her behind, and pretending not to be. Which wasn't her at all.

"And don't say 'nice' or 'expensive'," he added.

Cora assessed him though narrow eyes. "You're just so...you."

"And you like it." Astro's grin got even bigger. His eyebrows shot up and down.

Cora's shoulders rose and her head sank as she suppressed a laugh. _Why am I fighting it? I'm supposed to be better for him. Tell him the truth._

"It's growing on me."

_Damn. I'm too set in my ways._

It was compromiseable enough for Astro. "Still not what I was looking for, but I'll take it. Just to warn you, I'll not stop asking until I get the answer I'm looking for." His words were mischievous, but his eyes were soft. Almost wanting. Cora hoped she'd eventually be able to give him what he wanted to hear.

Cora shook her head as she realized she was falling into his eyes. She turned and elbowed Zane.

"You're still staring at that stuff? You were the one in a big hurry to leave. If you really want one, get it. If not, then don't." Just to snub him, Cora grabbed a aerothermic suspension gun that Astro had described to her earlier in detail. She gave Zane a smug grin before trotting off back toward the service tunnel. Astro watched her go, mesmerized. She glanced back at him briefly to give him a smile and a wink. _See, I was listening._

"Uhhhhh..." Zane looked to Astro for advice.

Astro took one off the rack and handed it to him. "Here. Take this one." He was already starting after Cora.

Zane looked at the gun in his hands as he sped after Astro. He held it like it might bite him.

"Ok, but what does it do?"

Astro didn't slow. He addressed Zane with a momentary backwards walk. "It makes you feel better." His voice was full of laughter.

"I beg to differ," Zane said, as he put it down. "It's not my style anyway," he mumbled to himself. "Silly really."

Astro had decided that they would follow the lines directly. Cora and Zane stood and watched as Astro took a flying start before diving down into the tunnel and straight though the floor into the level below. When he was sure no danger was apparent, he flew back up for his friends. He picked Cora up with a gentle hand around her waist, and Zane by the back of his jacket.

"Hey, what am I? An oversized kitten?" he complained.

"You're not cute enough to be a kitten," Cora said in a way that made it sound like it was an innocent observation.

"You said no more hugs, so you don't get any." Astro joked as he lowered them down to the service tunnel floor.

Zane straightened out his jacket when Astro released him. "What? That's not what I meant, this doesn't count!" he sputtered.

Astro had already climbed into the hole in the floor and was helping Cora down. She looked up at Zane.

"Scruffy hypocrite."

"Bossy she-demon," Zane said as he descended after her. "And for the record, I'm perfectly comfortable being scruffy."

This cycle continued for six more floors. With Astro breaking up the floor, and then helping them down. Them nagging at each other good-naturedly for the most part. They seemed to be almost enjoying themselves. Astro smiled at some of the creative insults they came up with. He had thought he had heard them all. But this wasn't for fun he knew. This was preoccupation to keep the fear at bay.

The next level took longer to get down to. The floor was of a thickness that Astro couldn't just smash through, he had to dig though as well. When he fell out the other side, he had to flip over and go straight into a hover as the floor lay far below. Now Astro was really starting to wonder what this place had once been used for. Tremendous generators churned away below. The conduit they had been following met up with several sideways junctions and snaked away along the wall, out a large doorway and out of sight. _Bottom floor,_ Astro thought.

If anything, the place was even spookier than before. But it was not because of the pitter-patter of hostile robot feet, in fact, the light was brighter and more even. It was that the place just gave the vibe of an old catacomb. It was older than the floors above, that much was evident in a change of construction materials. It was as if the entire structure had been reused and modified over and over again, and Striker was just the last in a long line to do so. When Astro brought Cora and Zane down their whole party became more hushed than ever before, and neither one strayed more than a few feet from him. When Astro suddenly stopped, they both stopped with him.

"What is it?" Cora asked.

Astro was looking at some heavy steel canisters stacked along the wall.

"A clue. I hope."

"A clue to what?" Cora was fidgeting with the suspension gun without even thinking about it.

Astro shrugged. "Don't you want to know what this place is? What it was used for?"

Zane pretended to think. "Um. Hm. No. Not even a little curious."

The canisters turned out to be empty. Astro rubbed a coating of dust off the side to read what it had contained.

Zane was a little disappointed. "Aw, it's just empty water canisters."

"No," Astro said thoughtfully, "It's not just water. It has a hydrogen isotope. It's heavy water. That's interesting."

Zane looked at Cora. "Oh, no, he's gone chemistry." Then to Astro. "We aren't going to grow any extra eyes or anything, are we?"

Astro smiled. "No. It's not radioactive or anything...Hmm." Astro started lightly tapping a canister.

"Fermi Communications..." He thought aloud. His face brightened. "It's an old neutrino communications depot."

"A say what now?" Zane asked.

"It was big science in it's day, I guess," Astro began, 'Neutrinos have so little mass, they travel effortlessly though any substance. And they interact so little with any forces that it was supposed revolutionize planetary and outer-space communications. Unfortunately, because they have so little mass, they are hard to detect." Astro spread his arms to indicate the vast amount of depth between them and the surface. "It was common to have these depots so deep underground, to block out any background radiation that might overwhelm the sensors. It was a great idea, but not very practical for everyone. Then entanglement communications came along and neutrinos fell out of fashion."

Cora couldn't help but smile, she loved listening to him wax on about his favorite confusing subjects. "So what you're saying is, this is a big scary phone company?"

"Oh, yes. Or, it used to be. Unless of course there's some kind of reactor down here and Striker's producing weapons grade isotopes," Astro said plainly.

Cora bit her lip. "You could have just left it at 'phone company'."

"Well, yeah, sorry." Astro scuffed his boots on the floor. He looked a _little_ sorry. He also looked a little impish.

They continued on. Finally, FINALLY, the lines they had been so doggedly following lead them to an actual automatic door and into a modernish room with a beautifully glowing control station.

Zane didn't like it. It was too modern. It could have been installed yesterday. It clashed with everything else on the floor. "What's this doing all the way down here, if everything else is upstairs? This can't be good."

Astro and Cora mirrored his sentiment, but they had come too far to stop now. Astro immediately went to work. This was his element.

He jumped right into seeing what could be done to halt the troublesome security, but he couldn't find any deactivation codes for the robots anywhere. They were patched in, like he had thought they would be, but the command prompt remained elusive. Come on, there has to be something...

There. There it was. He tried to access it.

Blocked.

He tried a few other tricks.

Blocked.

_What the? Those always work._

Zane leaned over as Astro began to look more and more frustrated. "What's wrong?"

Astro sighed. "I have to patch in directly." He held out his hand. "Screwdriver?"

Zane patted down his back pockets until he produced one.

Cora raised her brows. "You always have a screwdriver in your pocket?"

"I'm a mechanic," Zane said simply. Then he laughed. "There's a dirty joke in there somewhere.."

"Eww."

Astro had removed the access panel just underneath the main console. He crawled halfway in and began pulling at various wires. The screwdriver came in handy as some of the more likely candidates were firmly anchored down.

Cora and Zane had nothing better to do than watch. Zane stole several nervous glances at the automatic door, like he was afraid it would swish open at any moment. At times like this, he turned to his usual stress relieving exercise, annoying Cora.

Her vision was still placed straight ahead. She was aware of Zane looking sideways at her. She wouldn't acknowledge him. She knew what he was up to, so she continued to watch Astro work.

Zane grinned at her. "You're staring." He said as he followed her gaze.

Cora was not going to lose her temper. She could control it. "I'm NOT staring," she said quietly, impassively. "I'm thinking."

She couldn't have set him up better. He was showing teeth now.

"Thinking? About what?... Astro's butt?"

Several things happened at once. Cora lost her temper and shoved Zane so hard he nearly fell over.

Astro, who, of course had heard the whole exchange, dropped the screwdriver, slammed the back of his head against the panel above him, and just by chance, completed a circuit between one hot wire and one neutral.

Now Astro had taken quite a few nasty jolts in the past. Power-lines, lightning bolts, energy spewing aliens, whatnot. All hazards of the job. He did fry a few things from time to time, but for the most part, his components were rather well insulated. This new body even more so. There was however, quite a lot of wattage running though this little box. It gave him a shock. Astro jerked out of the control station, his eyes clenched tightly shut. Little blue arcs jumped between his fingers. They jumped from his chin to collarbone. They jumped from his elbows to his waist. Zane and Cora stopped in mid-tussle. The arcs stopped as fast as they had come. Astro wavered a bit before giving them a reassuring smile.

Cora had a shocked expression. Zane had a total oops face. "Dude? Are you alright?"

Astro made a nonchalant shrug. He was hoping to play it cool. He had to convince Cora he was fine before she killed Zane.

"I'm good."

A small puff of black smoke escaped with his words.

He quickly slapped his hands over his mouth.

For a moment Cora looked like she would explode. She looked like she was torn between clocking Zane with the suspension gun, or pouncing on Astro like a tiger. Astro scooted backwards as he pushed with his boots but came up short as his back pressed up against the control station. Zane could go nowhere as Cora still had a hand twisted into his shirt. He peeked fearfully though slitted lids.

Cora released Zane. Her hands dropped to her sides, and a mask of indifference slid over her face.

"Hm. Ok. If you say so."

Zane and Astro looked at one another, confused expressions on their faces, their thoughts the same._ There it is again! What's going on?_

Cora walked calmly up to Astro. He eyed her warily.

"Please open your mouth." No emotion present.

He did so slowly.

She inspected it. But seemed satisfied. She gave him a nod.

Then a little blue arc danced from his nose to her finger tip.

"OW!" She shouted in surprise. She shook her hand.

Astro ducked his head. "Sorry." He grabbed a nearby pipe to ground himself of any remaining current.

Cora said nothing more. She retook her place next to Zane and gestured for Astro to get back to work. Zane stood uncomfortably and silently.

Astro slid back into the control station. He opened his chest panel and began hooking himself up. _What did I do?_ he thought. _Is this some weird new form of punishment? Cora's never acted like this before._

Astro should have been paying attention. As soon as he finished the final connection, a screaming buzzing took place in his head.

He thought he was looking for a simple command prompt, for simple machines.

But they found him first.

See where an assumption will get you?

* * *

_So I have this boyfriend who lives in Columbus, like 80 miles away from me. Needless to say we spend a lot of time on the phone. So anyway, he finally bugged me to read him this enough that I finally broke down and read it to him. (He don't see none too good.) When I was finished, the conversation went something like this._

_Jason: "Cora isn't developed enough. I want her to be a stronger character."_

_Me: "Stronger? Like how?"_

_Jason: "Like Buffy."_

_Me: "Like Buffy the vampire slayer?"_

_Jason: "Yes. Absolutely."_

_Me: "I'm sorry Jason, I'm not turning Cora into Buffy the vampire slayer."_

_Jason: "Oh please? I want her to be a badass."_

_Me: "You know, just for that, I think I'm going to kill her off...Horribly."_

_Jason: "NOOOOOOOO!"_

_Me: "Yes! I'm going to give Astro his happily ever after and then rip his heart out!"_

_Jason: "Noooooo! Don't do that! Why would you do that? Kill Zane, he'll make a good martyr!"_

_Me: "Jeez, Jason, way to throw Zane under the bus!"_


	14. Chapter 14

It was a different kind of noise, a screaming pitch, based solely in his head. It was a splitting disruption that caused him to tremble and twitch. It was an attack, he realized with dismay. An attack and a trap. He was being pummeled by a multitude of voices. They were very aware. He had made a mistake. Astro could sense emotions behind them. They had feelings. They felt both outraged and violated.

'I'm so sorry, I didn't know.'

Astro could feel their surprise. They hadn't expected to be addressed, much less served an apology. The noise subsided a fraction, as if in consideration, then increased in intensity. It focused into a beam that caused Astro to scream and kick.

**YOU ARE UNAUTHORIZED!**

The words were rather felt more than seen or heard. They racked him with pain, but even so, he was relieved that communication was possible and that they were willing to do so. At least it was something. In comparison, Astro's voice seemed small and weak. He could just barely think clearly enough to squeak out a response.

'I know that. Please, I only want to talk.'

A repeat of his hacking attempt was forcefully replayed to him. They knew what he had been trying to do. The shrill noise took on a deep undertone, like a vengeful growl. Astro felt horrible about it. He had attempted to do to them what he always feared to have done to himself. He projected this guilt outwards, hoping they could see it.  
The anger wavered, but persisted.

'I know what I did was wrong now. You have no reason to trust me, but...'

**I AM COMING FOR YOU.**

'No! Wait!'

**YOU ARE UNAUTHORIZED.**

Then Astro was assaulted by a barrage of incomprehensible images and sensations that he had not been designed to handle. He was suddenly seeing and feeling though every one of their number. He was being given a glimpse into the hive. They were emphasizing their statement with a show of force. It was too much information at once. His mind reeled as it tried to process something so different and incompatible with his own. Astro tried to block it out. When that didn't work he tried to filter out the bulk and concentrate on one at a time. Astro felt himself loping down stairs with limbs that were not his own. He was charging down hallways after a hundred other clanking individuals. They were coming, and they were jubilant as they did so. They laughed and toyed with his mind. They tossed him from one to the other until Astro felt like he was bouncing off the waves of an enormous ocean.

'Please. Do not come. Please stop.'

Astro could feel his phantom limbs slowing. They stopped in their game of catch and the pain eased as they withdrew some of their onslaught. The sentinels all came to a stop and raised their heads in what could only be mild curiosity.

**WHY? IS NOT YOUR NUMBER READY TO BATTLE?**

In the small corner of his mind that he still had to himself Astro scratched his abstract head. _My number?_ he thought to himself. It couldn't mean Cora and Zane. Surely it could see that there was only one of him. Then it occurred to him that perhaps the sentinel mind had little contact with other robots. This could very well be the first outside conversation it's ever had. It may not have a concept of singularity.

'I do not wish to fight.' Astro had got them to stop. Now he needed to keep them that way.

Astro felt suddenly blinded as he was spotlighted by incorporeal eyes. They blazed a furious red. Astro was buffeted by a tempest of disapproval. It's words cut into Astro with all the intensity of a whipcrack.

**COWARD! YOU ONLY FEAR DEACTIVATION.**

Astro's answer was immediate.

'Don't we all?'

The sentinel mind had to hide a broadcast of frustration. It seemed to pace like animal, lashing it's tail back and forth. Programming dictated that all unauthorized non-organics were to be destroyed. It had really looked forward to the chance to carry this order out. But it felt this robot had made a valid point. It had felt the sincerity in that. The infraction had been unintentional, not that the Mind was any less angry about it. As illogical as it was to disobey orders, to destroy it now somehow felt...dishonorable. It was a mistake to meld this much with it. It should have been simply located, incapacitated and destroyed.

The Mind withdrew itself slightly, releasing it's strong hold. The hive awareness became a muted sensation, and the screeching pain in Astro's head faded to dull agony. His body tremors finally subsided somewhat. Astro could then swear that the Mind gave a mental sigh, full of resignation. It blew straight though him like a hot wind.

**THEN YOU WILL BE SURRENDERED TO THE AUTHORITY.**

'Authority?'

**AFFIRMATIVE. HE IS REQUESTING A REPORT.**

Astro couldn't let that happen.

'Wait! Wait! What's your hurry? You know where I am. You basically have me surrounded. I can't go anywhere. Wouldn't a little interrogation make a more satisfactory report?'

The Mind was ready to object, to accuse Astro of some form of stalling or trickery. Which is exactly what it was.

'Or does not your authority appreciate detailed intel?' Astro added slyly.

The Mind contemplated this. The more it thought about it, the more it welcomed the suggestion. It DID want to produce an impressive report.

Astro was preying on a common robot weakness. The almost uncontrollable desire to please their human overseers.

The Mind was aware of this, and thought it a marvelous bit of manipulation. It now looked at Astro with a hint of approval. It should not have been so quick to dismiss this robot. It was smarter than it looked. Not only did the Mind finally have an adversary, it was a _worthy_ adversary. The Mind wished to probe it's mind further, but there seemed to be some dissimilarity between them. That could be rectified. The Mind began a silent analysis needed to create the necessary adaptations.

* * *

At his first outcry, Cora had rushed forward instantly. She slid in beside Astro, took one look, and slid back out again. He had looked like he was having some kind of seizure. Cora grabbed the back of his shirt and started to pull him out. "Help me!" She cried to Zane. He didn't need to be told. They both had to keep him steady once they managed to sit him up, he was trembling so violently.

Astro gave a pained moan. Cora tried to rouse him.

"Astro? Astro!" She patted his cheek and shook him sharply.

"What's wrong with him?" Zane was at a complete loss.

"I don't know," Cora pried open an eyelid. Astro's eye projection was dim and pixelated. She waved, hoping for some reaction. "This is wrong," she said flatly. "This is very wrong. He should still be responsive. I'm going to disconnect him."

"Should you do that?"

"No, probably not. But this isn't normal."

As Cora reached for the connections, Astro's hand grabbed her wrist. His eyes opened just a fraction as he looked at her.

"Don't Cora." He said weakly. "I need to..talk to them."

"But Astro,..." The desperation in her voice was plain.

"Please...Cor-a."

Cora withdrew her hand.

Astro's eyes slowly slid shut. He slumped against her and his head lolled onto her shoulder. Cora leaned into him to keep him upright. She exhaled a puff of breath into his hair.

"I sure hope you know what you're doing."

* * *

Astro came back to find the sentinel mind sniffing around his memory banks, trying to pry them open. This was extremely rude behavior.

Astro felt like he was being sneered at. Like he was being dared to say something about it. But when Astro endured this silently, the sentinel mind pushed it away, like it was no longer worthy of interest, though Astro could sense an undercurrent of seething resentment. It had been hoping to provoke Astro to hostility. It still wanted to fight, and it wanted Astro to give it a reason to.

'We may have gotten off on the wrong foot, but I'd like to try to-'

**IDENTIFY.**

It was the proper place to start an inquiry. Or any conversation for that matter. Introductions were necessary and long overdue. Astro knew very well it wasn't wise to share with this enemy, but he hoped to change that status. Trust had to be lain down somewhere; so his past experiences had taught him. That didn't mean Astro was about to make it easy.

'Will you agree to a equal share of information? That is _proper_ robot etiquette.' He'd school these robots some manners.

The Mind said nothing, but snaked out a tendril of reluctant assent.

Respectfully, Astro made the equivalent of a gracious bow.

'Very well. I am known as Astro Tenma.'

Astro thought he felt a tingle of recognition though the connection they shared, but it was quickly snuffed out, as if he hadn't been meant to see it. Astro had not realized he'd been prying, or that he even had the ability to do so. That part of the connection closed like a steel trap.

_Ah, this door can go both ways._ As much pleasure as this knowledge brought him, Astro was relieved when the minds were silenced, taking with them most of the ache they caused, though they still hovered nearby him like so much smoke.

'Do you know of me?' Astro asked, honestly curious. He felt he could take a little more offensive now that they had a bargain struck.

The Mind gave him no answer. _So much for an equal exchange._ Instead, Astro could almost imagine three giant eyelights narrowed in intense scrutiny. It didn't believe him.

**IDENTIFY.**

'I just told you.'

**IMPROPER IDENTIFICATION.**

'What? I think I know who I am, thank you.'

**MODEL NUMBER. CLASSIFICATION. SERIES CODE.**

'I don't have-'

Astro could feel sharp metal claws scrabbling at the insofar inaccessible part of his mind again, causing him to wince. Astro had suspected the Mind of trying to run a decipher in the background this whole time, looking for a backdoor, and it was now growing aggravated with it's lack of progress. Astro hoped the differences in their operating systems would stymie that effort. He hated to admit it, but he really wished he had that defensive software now.

'What do you think you're doing? I'm more than willing to answer your questions! What are you hoping to find anyway? Specifications? Weaknesses?'

'You just can't- STOP THAT!'

Astro lost his temper. He had been nothing but cooperative and still this robot wanted to pick a fight. Astro wanted to turn this around, but this had to be one of the most frustrating bots he'd ever talked to. It was almost as pigheaded as he was. Without realizing it, Astro directed his irritation outwardly. The Mind recoiled instantly, as if burned. It hissed as it collapsed in on itself and became a condensed point, buzzing with surprise and pain and fear.

_I can fight back? I can fight back!_

**AGGRESSION!**

Astro thought this was the chance the Mind had been waiting for. He immediately regretted his unintentional offense.

'I didn't mean to. I didn't even know I could!' Astro said quickly.

The Mind only responded with a quick, vengeful nip of noise, just sharp enough to make Astro cry out. To Astro's surprise, the sentinels did not resume their march, they remained where they were.

'Wait, so now you DON'T want to battle? I thought you did! You've been nothing but impolite and abusive.'

The Mind gave no apologies. It remained a quiet mass of undulating ill-humor. Astro caught a huff of emotion from the Mind that could only be translated as a very childish - _you started it._ -

**YOU ARE RELUCTANT TO SHARE.**

'I'M reluctant to share? That's MY personal space. It doesn't belong to you. You can't just go digging around in it. I will share gladly if you'll just listen.'

He continued a little less firmly. 'And I don't have a model number to give you. Or a class. I'm not one of a series. I am one of a kind. You do have a concept of one, don't you?'

**I AM ONE.**

Astro sighed.

'No, you are many, acting as one. There is a difference. There aren't a bunch of me's running around, independent of each other. I have no 'number'. I'm not a composite of many minds. The one you're invading now is the only one.'

**I AM ONE.**

Astro knew it would be pointless to continue this argument. It must think because that's all it knows, that all other robots must be that way too. Astro thought about it a moment. They were many units to make one whole. He himself was comprised of many components to make one robot. If he lost a limb, he'd still be himself. The Mind must see things much the same way.

'You don't get out much do you? Ever talk to many other robots?'

**CANNOT.**

Well that confirmed that theory.

'Closed network, huh? No wonder you lack social skills.'

The Mind grumbled in response. It was a sullen vibration that set Astro's teeth on edge.

**HOW DO YOU KNOW?**

'Know what?'

**THAT YOU ARE...SINGULAR?** The Mind seemed to have trouble with the word.

'I know, because I made myself,' Astro said proudly. _Well, with a little help_, as he thought of his father.

The Mind was absolutely perplexed. It moved in closer, needing to know more. Hungry, like a child hungers for a curious tale.

**YOU ARE YOUR OWN CREATOR?**

'Err, not exactly. I have a creator. He created me, and then I created me, then I died, and now here I am. Understand?'

**NO.**

'Yeah. It's a long story.'

The Mind curled up at Astro's feet like a ludicrously large dog.

**TELL ME.**

* * *

Cora was in an incredibly melancholy state of mind. She and Zane both sat quietly on either side of Astro. Cora had one arm around his back, mindful of the connections between that stretched into the control station behind them. Her hand would alternate between stroking his shoulder or neck as she vacantly stared ahead. Occasionally his body would shake or he would groan, at which time she would lean her head against his and grit her teeth. Zane was similarly affected, for he would often flinch, then close his eyes until it passed. He couldn't stand it anymore.

"What do you think is going on in there?"

Cora's voice was deadpan. "I don't know." She began absently running her fingers through his hair.

"I can't take it. If he did need our help, would we even know? I think we should get him out of there anyway."

Cora looked at Zane then.

"No. He said not to. We will give him more time." She said it with a finality that left no room for argument, even though she couldn't agree with Zane more. This was painful. Tears began to track their way down her cheeks. Cora didn't want to cry in front of Zane. She didn't like crying in front of anyone, but that's all she seemed to do lately, no matter how hard she tried to control it.

When Zane saw this he got up, walked around Astro and sat down beside her. He pulled her close until he had them both leaning against him.

"Hey. Cora. We'll be alright. Ok?"

Cora wiped her tears away, but said nothing.

"And I'm sorry about earlier. You've just been worrying us and all. I was just trying to get a rise out of you. I know being cooped up here must have been very stressful and we shouldn't have left you behind like that-"

Cora interrupted. "It's not that at all, Zane."

"Uh? It's not?" Zane looked at her quizzically.

Cora had to wipe her face again. She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. She took another slow breath.

"I don't know what he sees in me." Her voice still cracked at the end.

That was the last thing he expected her to say. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Where is this coming from? Why would you even say that? You've had too much time to think, obviously. Too much time alone by yourself."

Cora started to reply, but he cut her short. "No. You know what? It doesn't matter. Would you like to know why?" He began again before she could even nod.

"It's because I think I've had to listen to every little stupid thing you two have ever done together." He drummed his fingers on her arm with every word. He gave her a crooked smile. "You're my friend and all, but I get really sick of hearing about you. 'Cora got a haircut'," he mimed. "'Guess what she said to me.' Or the ever popular, 'Oh, Cora did the cutest thing today', blah, blah, blah. I don't really need to know these things, much less care. No offense, I just hate to think I've been enduring it all these years for nothing. He never shuts up about you."

Cora had to smile at that. Then doubt clouded her features.

"But do you think we're really compatible? He's so nice, and I'm so..."

"Mean? Evil?" Zane suggested helpfully. All it got him was pinched. "Ow!" He sucked in a breath through his teeth. _Yeah, mean. Like that,_ he thought, even as he smiled. "It doesn't matter what I think. It only matters what he thinks. Maybe you compliment each other, I don't know. I'm not the one you should ask about this kind of stuff. You should ask him."

Cora still looked despondent.

Zane leaned heavily against the control station. He shrunk back into his jacket.

"And maybe... you're not that bad a person. Maybe you're pretty nice yourself. MOST of the time." He pretended like it was causing him great pain to admit this. "I don't know why you're beating yourself up about it."

"Thank you, Zane."

"See? See? There it is. You didn't have to thank me, but you did. Now will you stop acting weird and freaking us out?"

It was then Cora noticed how quiet Astro had become. His trembling had stopped and his breathing was even.

"Hey, I think he's making progress," she said hopefully.

Zane sat up to look at him. "Good. That was driving me crazy." He said nothing for a moment.

"What was it exactly that finally made you two hook up anyway?" He leaned back again like he wasn't asking about anything more important than the weather. It was really so he didn't have look at her when he said it. She turned to glare at him anyway. "You two ARE, right? I'd like to get a definite answer from at least one of you."

A thousand different things ran though Cora's mind at once. The first and foremost being, _mind your own business._ But for whatever reason, that's not what she said.

"Yes." She looked at Astro as she said this. "It was kind of an accident."

"Accident?"

"It just happened. I couldn't control myself."

Zane now had a most scandalous expression.

"Cora?! Did you take advantage of Astro?"

"It wasn't like THAT!"

"Our little Astro?!"

"NO!"

"I'm just kidding. I think it's sweet."

* * *

'Shhh! Cora's talking about me.' As preoccupied as he was at the moment, it was hard NOT to hear them. They were talking so close to his sensitive ears.

**YOUR AUTHORITY?**

Astro laughed. 'No. She's my...my human.' He didn't even know how to define her to this robot in a way it would understand. 'I don't really have an authority as you call it.'

**WE ARE MADE TO FOLLOW ORDERS.**

'Well I don't. I think for myself, and do what _I_ think is right.

**FLAWED. ABERRATION.**

'What? That's your opinion. This is the way I choose to be. If you think it's wrong, so be it. Stop your scolding and be quiet, or I won't finish the story.'

The Mind listened in with him for a while, but grew impatient.

**IRRELEVANT.**

'It may be to you, but it's important to me.'

**COUNTERPRODUCTIVE.**

**RESUME. **

Astro was getting tired of it's interruptions. He turned and snapped at the Mind.

'Of course you wouldn't understand, you're just a- ' Astro stopped, shocked, as he realized what he had been about to say.

_Just a what? Just a robot? Why would I say that! _

The Mind did not seem to notice. It was using this time to launch it's compatibility adaptations. It had began to grow very fond of this robot.

Maybe the Authority would let it keep him.

* * *

Holiday on Monday. I'll finally get two days off in a row! Yay for me! What does this mean for you? No new chapter on Monday! Awwwww. You'll just have to wait till later on in the week. I'll scrounge together some spare time to put it together ...somehow.


	15. Chapter 15

There was only one matching file for a TenmaAstro in the compound mainframe. Something the authority had saved off some time ago. The Mind had read it before. Many times, in fact. It gleaned no new details from it as it re-ran it again. It was disappointingly short. Nothing more than a brief physical description and a list of abilities, of which those were impressive. This had been a very powerful robot. HAD been. The Mind knew for a fact that it had been permanently deactivated. Now that same robot claimed it was in it's compound. The description did not match. This caused an unprecedented amount of confusion that had the Mind tying it's relays into knots. It could not be the same one.

**RESUME.**

'Hush.'

The Mind was just about ready to send a squad to deal with Astro's noisy humans. A few stun bolts would shut them up. They should not be there. The mind was sure now that the female was the same one that was supposed to be locked upstairs. The Mind did nothing about them however, it did not yet wish for the strange robot to make a disconnect. Not until it had initiated it's work-arounds and acquired what it wanted. It was bending a lot of rules to keep this conversation going.

It could have broken open Astro's mind to get the story for itself. It had finally made the necessary calculations and everything was in place. Those pathways are open now, it could have access at anytime if it wanted to, but some part hesitated to try it. It wasn't sure of the resistance or possible retaliation it might have to endure. The Mind's inclination had not been stretched far enough to make the attempt. Though Astro was sorely testing it. By the time Astro had returned his attentions to the matter at hand, the mind had become a black jostling mass of restless particles, without any kind of form at all. It only coalesced as Astro started to speak.

'Now, where was I?'

The Mind's metaphysical ears perked up excitedly.

Astro eyed the Mind as he began again, looking at it thoughtfully. The Mind wavered side to side as it waited.

Astro then closed his mouth without saying anything at all.

The Mind's ears drooped in defeat. Then it growled at him.

Astro smiled to himself. This seemed to be something the Mind wanted very much, and an opportunity to do a little interrogation of his own.

'This might be a good time to pause.'

Another growl.

'Now. Now. It's just that here I've spent all this time talking about myself and I've realized I don't know what to call you at all. You never told me. Do you have a name?'

The Mind gave him a dubious once-over, suspecting him again of some sly trickery. Astro sat patiently, looking so irritatingly innocent that the Mind wanted to strike him.

With much reluctance, the Mind began rolling off it's identification numbers. It was a long list. Instead of a single model number, every one of it's units had been assigned one of it's own, even though they were completely identical. The Mind blamed this poor arrangement on some simple blatant human fallacy. If this _supposed_ TenmaAstro wished to stall, it couldn't have picked a better way to do it. It would never get to hear the rest of the story at this rate.

'Whoa, hey, hey. Stop.'

The Mind reared back, surprised by the interruption.

'I want a name, not a number.'

**THIS IS MY NAME.**

'Striker, your authority, what does he call you?'

**HE CALLS ME ROBOT.**

'Oh. That's...unfortunate.'

**YES.**

'How about your descriptive project name? Most robots had one at one time or another. Maybe it will make a nice acronym.'

**NOT ON RECORD.**

'Hm. Maybe you're just a prototype. Or perhaps you were created without proper paperwork, not that I'm one to talk. Do you know who designed you or where you were built?'

**NO.**

'Was it here?'

**NO.**

'You're not making this easy with all these monosyllabic answers. Can't you be a little more elaborate?'

**NO.**

Astro groaned.

'Honestly, WHAT do you think about all day if you're not asking yourself the big questions? I know I'd want to know these things. So what DO we know? Striker finds old robots. Has them studied, rebuilt, and then shipped back here? Why so many of you? It seems a bit excessive with all that firepower you're equipped with. Unless...unless you were produced to sell...just like any of these other weapons.'

**YES.**

'Were you just going to wait for me to figure that out first before you were going to tell me?'

**YES.**

'Do you know who you're going to be sold to?'

**YES.**

'And? Are you going to tell me?'

**NEGATIVE.**

'Are you going to tell me anything?'

**NO. RESUME, ABERRATION.** It's voice smacked of impatience.

Astro sighed. He was willing to call it progress. That was the most he'd managed to get out of it so far. Apparently it cared very little for names, as it seemed to care so little for it's own.

Throughout the compound the multitude of the Mind hummed contentedly as Astro finally resumed his tale.

In truth, Astro was giving the Mind a very abbreviated version of his story. Astro left out a lot of the little details. There were some things he decided the Mind wouldn't understand or didn't need to know.

When Astro got to the part about the nanobots, he described the experience in such vivid detail that the Mind shrank back in terror. It had known about their production though it's link upstairs with the empty shells that it used to run the assembly floor. The Mind was not just responsible for security, it also had many other monitoring duties to perform. In a way, it was in charge of the whole compound, even though it wasn't what it was technically built to do. It was good at it, and excessively proud of the job it did. The Mind wasn't feeling very prideful now. In fact it felt rather betrayed that such a lowsome instrument had come to creation under it's management, especially after Astro explained the nanobots beneficial and innocent intentions.

The Mind had always imagined them eating though blast doors or armored transports, or in places where explosives were not a viable option, practical military applications. Not.. not this. There were so many other ways to disable a robot. This was unjustifiably malicious. This was wiping them out as if they had never been. Just the thought caused the Mind to pull itself together densely, corralling every intelligence protectively, as if it feared they would be torn away. This fear converted into anger and predicatively sparked denial. With only one outlet the Mind rounded on Astro. It coiled and uncoiled in barely restrained fury.

**YOU ARE IN ERROR ABERRATION!**

'No, I'm not,' Astro said calmly. 'Your authority is a very bad man.'

**HE WOULD NOT DEPLOY SUCH A DEVICE IN THIS MANNER!**

'Oh, wouldn't he? Tell me again why you don't have a name.'

The Mind snarled in response.

**OBSTINATE ANDROID! I WILL SEE THE TRUTH FOR MYSELF!**

With that the Mind flung open the doors it had worked so hard to unlock. It's tiny motes melded with Astro until the two were one and the same. Astro was both suffocated and invaded. Not one part of him could he escape to, for nothing belonged solely to him anymore. The Mind howled in victory as it spread. It took over his motor functions and ravaged through his data files, licking at every bit of information that it touched. Astro couldn't even scream. It crunched into his memory with a relish, lapping up every bit of his unfinished story.

Suddenly the Mind stopped. It bit at it's tongue like it had just tasted something awful. Then suddenly it recoiled and writhed. It spat everything out and curled into a tight shivering ball. It shrank into a small pathetic quivering mass. It relinquished the control it had taken from him. It looked at him with frightened eyes.

**YOU DID NOT LIE.**

'No. I did not.'

**THAT WAS... **The Mind couldn't bring itself to continue.

Astro wanted to be angry, but couldn't. He sent the Mind a wave of reassurance, which it took gladly.

'I know.'

**YOU ARE TENMAASTRO.**

Astro had to laugh. 'Close enough.'

The Mind pouted.

'Is there something wrong with that?'

**THE AUTHORITY WILL NOT LET ME KEEP YOU.**

'What?'

**YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE NEUTRALIZED. PERMANENTLY.**

'Has Striker spoken to you about me?'

**NO. COMMUNICATION INTERCEPTION.**

'You were spying on him? Wow, and I thought I was bad.'

The Mind gave a slow sad nod. It had really been hoping this wasn't the TenmaAstro. It had wished to incorporate him into the system. Such a powerful and entertaining robot would have been most welcome in the hive.

**I WAS TO BE YOUR REPLACEMENT.**

'MY WHAT?'

**I WAS TO BE SOLD.**

'To the City?'

**AFFIRMATIVE.**

Astro tried to imagine a Metro City crawling with thousands of these moody, hotheaded and very heavily weaponized robots. They might make an impressive force, sure, but there would be consequences, no doubt about it. They would possibly please those of the robot disinclined. Primitively built, with few human characteristics and unable to speak to boot. Only following orders. Astro wondered if someone like the Anti-Robot-Rights-Organization had commissioned them, or if this was a pet project of Striker's own. And if any of them knew how much of a failure it really was. Astro was betting the Mind had almost as much free will as he did. Striker wouldn't be selling them to the city now, not with the trouble he was in. Astro wondered what will become of them.

The Mind curled itself gently around Astro's arms and shoulders. It was still linked to him. It took on a more tentative probe of his mind, which Astro allowed. Then the Mind opened it's own connection. The adaptations allowed Astro to comprehend it with the absence of pain. It also helped that they were no longer screaming at him. He flowed into hundreds of robots at once, seeing though their eyes. He lifted his arms, and so did they all in unison, submitting to his command, as he was one of them now. As weird as it was, Astro was filled with a sudden childish delight.

'Coooool.' He had to fight though, to keep his voice from melding with their own.

The Mind itself was doing it's own explorations. This robot was very strange. Nothing stemmed off of it. There was truly only one mind here. That meant it had to run though every possible decision on it's own? How exhausting. How...inefficient. What a poor design. And this whole ridiculous concept of gender? What possible purpose does it serve? It must be another one of those human contrivances. The Mind however, found his memories fascinating. It had so few of it's own. It carefully steered around his most recent horrible ones and delved deeper. These were more stories, and it wanted to copy all of them. Some of them were quite different, and hard to understand, Almost as if they had come from something else entirely. The Mind filed them away to sort out later.

'So are you done poking around in my head yet?' Astro said this cheerfully, he had no idea an invasion could be so much fun.

**I AM FINISHED, ABERRATION.**

'Stop calling me that. My name is Astro, not aberration. You know that. I know you know that. So quit.'

**ABERRATION.**  
**aberration. ABERRATION.**  
**Aberration.**

The words came from multiple directions, each one of a different pitch that made Astro think of mechanized birdsong.

'Oh, now you're just having fun with me. You know, we really aren't that different, you and I. You're a bit of an aberration yourself.'

**NEGATIVE.**

Astro's joyful mood faded as he realized that it didn't matter how close they got. The Mind was just as frustrating as ever.

'Really? Surely you've gathered enough input for your report. You ran though my whole brain! Why haven't you turned me in yet? So you could have story-time? You even KNOW that he wants me, ME in particular, destroyed. So why have I not been obliterated into a million pieces? Does your programming allow for my continued existence? Do you have the authorization? Or is it your choice?

The Mind was not quick to answer.

**INTERROGATION...**

'Oh no, you can't hide behind that anymore. Just admit to me that you do not because you CHOOSE not to.'

**NEGATIVE.**

'Ok, then maybe you don't want to fight me because you know I can fight back, and you don't really know what I can do.

**YOUR WEAPONS ARE OFFLINE.**

'And yet you hesitate. Why?' Astro knew he was pushing it.

**YOUR TACTICAL DISADVANTAGE, SINGULAR ABERRATION.**

'So? Are you feeling sorry for me? There's nothing that needs to be fair or honorable about this. You're just following orders, right? You didn't start out so analytical. You were a big scary bully. I'm starting to think you're just a great big wimp.'

This was not a smart thing for Astro to say. If he was hoping to coax out an admission, that was the wrong way to do it.

It DID create quite a spectacular effect. Astro could imagine quite clearly the Mind blinking in surprise. After a moments hesitation, the Mind screamed defiantly, shaking with anger. Individual motes of consciousness coalesced and fanned outwards to every side. It's size increased a hundred fold with the speed of an explosion. It spread like plumage before thinning into long sharp points. Astro couldn't help but flinch away from the sudden transformation. Then, as if it hadn't created enough of an intimidating display, tremendous metallic jaws swung down and closed right next to Astro's head with a resounding clang. His first instinct was to run, but there was nowhere to run to. He could back away, but to withdraw would show weakness, so Astro stood rooted to the spot, wishing he had physical eyes to close. _It isn't real_, he told himself.

A misting ooze dripped from a snarling dark muzzle just inches from his nose. Fabricated light reflected off gleaming metal teeth. All of it suspended on a long serpentine neck which clacked and rattled with it's thousands of created protrusions. A great glowing red eye studied him. It could feel his fear. Astro could no longer hide it from the Mind. It reveled in it in satisfaction, even as it admired his bravery. The Mind hissed menacingly at Astro and snorted a black cloud of itself right into his face.

Astro waved it away, putting on the best front he could under the circumstances. He managed to assume an aloofness that he didn't feel at all. _I've faced worst things than this. Though... those things were never intimately entrenched in my head._

'Being a little over-dramatic aren't we?'

**NO!** It blared deafeningly; jaws parting slightly.

'Temper. Temper.'

**INSULT! CONFLICT! YOU ARE TOO DIFFICULT!**

'I'M TOO DIFFICULT?!'

**YOU ARE INCOMPATIBLE!** The Mind trumpeted.

It's jaws snapped in his face. They came together with a clack, then they dispersed and disappeared.

With that, Astro was shut out. The connection was terminated with an abruptness that left him stunned. Astro was forcibly ejected from the compounds mainframe.

'Fine!' Astro yelled into the darkness.

He wasn't sure why he was so angry, or who he was now shouting to. 'I don't want you in my head anyway!'

_Well...I botched that up. There's no telling what it will decide to do now._

Astro now stood alone in his own mind. It was a room of quiet darkness. He could exit, but he hesitated. He was very bothered. Not by his current unpredictable future, as he knew well he should have been, but bothered by the fact that, with the Mind gone, he now felt so very much alone. As hostile and irritating as they might have been, it had felt good to be part of their group. To belong. Still it had rejected him. It thought him strange. Sure, the Mind had never been exposed to ANYTHING before, but it wasn't the first robot to find his behavior unusual.

_ Where do I belong?  
_

_Maybe I DO need to pick a side._ He thought about it fleetingly before dismissing the idea.

_No. I'll cause nothing but contention. I can't stand for one over the other. I'll always be in the middle. No matter what I do. I'm the intermediary._

He had always felt he belonged to both worlds, but now he was beginning to feel he'd had it wrong all along.

He realized that maybe he was standing on either side and belonging to neither.

It's funny how a sequence of life's little circumstances stack up to ultimately leave you only one direction to go. All that talk about choice, when in the end, he really had none of his own.

Diplomacy WAS always his strong suit. As sticky and difficult as it could and would be.

_I will bridge that gap,_ Astro thought resolutely.

_I have to._ His hands curled into fists.

_I WILL bring them together._

_I will have them both._

_...Somehow._

* * *

The Mind had quite a conundrum on it's hands. The authority was still waiting for a report. He had even made a second request. This posed a problem. A robot should never lie to a superior, but that's exactly what the Mind wanted to do, and it felt torn about it. The TenmaAstro had angered it, yes. But if it reported the truth, then it would be ordered to destroy him. The Mind didn't want that or the many numbers it would lose in such a battle. But the robot's continued existence stood in the way of the Mind. Stopped it from fulfilling it's purpose as the TenmaAstro replacement. The assemblage of units were at odds like never before. The halls echoed with the clicks and chatters of their agitated legion. Clawed metal appendages scraped furrows into the floors. An agreement was finally reached.

It sent a brief report. It reported the location. It reported that the TenmaAstro was an operational new construct.

Then all fell silent.

The Mind had withdrawn into the mainframe, and deactivated everyone of it's individuals.

It would not be ordered to fight. It would not hinder their escape.

That was it's CHOICE.

* * *

After his overly eventful tussle with the Mind, Astro took a few moments to just enjoy himself. He was in a very relaxed state as a very unaware Cora continued to stroke his head. Her fingers lightly brushed his ear. It tickled. Astro ruined his own moment with a barely suppressed laugh.

"Astro! Are you awake?"

"No, I'm still out of it," he said without opening his eyes. "Please continue."

Cora was outraged. And happy. She sat up enough to lightly shove him.

"Why you little...You...you had me so scared."

Astro sat up and disconnected himself. Then he reached out for Cora. He could tell she'd been crying. "I know. Come here," he said as she sank into him. He stroked her hair and kissed the top of her head without thinking twice about it.

"I'm sorry. But you know me..."

"Yeah." Cora said as she sat up again."The day you run out of dangerous stuff to do..." Cora shook her head. "Whatever will you do with yourself?"

Astro smiled and bounced. "I know, right!" _She understands me so well. And she wonders why I put up with HER?_ Astro was suddenly serious. As he stood, he took her hands in his own and helped her to her feet.

"When we get out of this, we need to have a nice long talk."

Cora's face fell. "Am I in trouble?"

Zane rolled his eyes. "WE ARE ALL IN TROUBLE!" Then he looked at Astro. "Um. I think. You don't look like you're in a hurry, so I'm guessing things went well?"

"Yes and no. I don't think it's coming to get us, but it's a very temperamental robot, and I might have pissed it off a little bit."

Zane covered his face with his hands. "Oh, that's just great. That's...That's very reassuring. Thank you Astro."

Astro gave no reply. He had adopted a blank stare.

Zane waved a hand in front of his face. "Hello?" Zane looked to Cora. "NOW what's wrong with him?"

Astro was hearing voices again.

**YOU MUST RUN TENMAASTRO.**

'How...How are you still in my head? I'm not connected...'

**WE ARE ONE.**

**RUN!**


End file.
